
MaBaEBOMMnaaatB 



THUEE LECTUHES, 




DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



MiciiiGrAN State Agricdltcral Society, 

AT ITS 

Annual Meeting, at Lansing, January 17, 1865. 



The Indeveloped Regions and Ec sources of the State of Miciiigan, 



BY 



D. BETHUNE DUFFIELD, Esq, Detroit, 



The State Agricultural Society; Its Means and Ends, 

BY 

A. S. WELCH, 

Principal of tlie State Noxrnal School. 



THE SOILS AND SUBSOILS OF MICHIGAN, 

BY 

Prof, A. WIXCHELL, 

Of tlie State University of MioMgan, 



PUBLISHED BY OEDEE 07 THE LEGISLATUEE. 






LANSING: 

JOHN A. KERR & CO., PRINTERS TO THE STATE 

1865. 




THUEE LECTURES, 



DEUVEBED BEFORE THB 



Michigan State Agricultural Society, 



AT ns 



Annual Meeting, at Lansing, January 17, 1865. 



Tfte Undeveloped Eeglons and Resources cf the State of Michigan, 



BY 



D, BETHUNE DUFFIELD, Esq., Detroit, 



The State Agricultural Society; Its Aims and its Means, 

BY 

A. S. WELCH, 

Principal Of the State Normal Scliool, 



THE SOILS AND SUBSOILS OF MICHIGAN, 

BY 

Prop. A. WINCHELL, 

Of the State University of Micliiaan, 



PUBLISHED BY OEDEE OF THE LEGISLATTJEE. 



LANSING: 

JOHN A. KERR & CO., PRINTERS TO THE STATE. 
1865. .: 



THE 

Undeveloped Regions and Resources 



OF THE 



STATE OF MICHIGAN, 

With some Practical Suggestions in Eeference to their Early 
Occupancy and Development. 



J^ LEOTXJUE, 

Prepared for the Michigan State Agricultural Society, and delivered 
at Lansing, January 17, A. D. 1865, by 



The object of the following address is to submit in outline 
sketch, an exhibition of the undeveloped regions and resources 
of the State of Michigan — accompanying it with such few prac- 
tical suggestions, as may contribute somewhat to their early oc- 
cupancy and development. 

A theme so broad, and withal so attractive, exacts on the 
part of him who would treat it with any degree of forbearance 
towards his hearers, a very large sacrifice, both of material and 
suggestion. ^ 

However indifferent to all matters of State development we 
may have suffered ourselves to remain through the palmy days of 
the past, when " our peace flowed like a river," and all was happi- 
ness and harmony along our borders, it will be conceded, that 
in a time like that through which as a people we are noAV passing, 
this indifference must of necessity cease. When the wild 
echoes of destructive war are roUing through a nation, they not 
only summon her brave men to the field, but they at the 
same time command her wise men into council ; requiring of 



them a cfvreful reconnoissance of the future, and a prompt in- 
auguration of such pohcies as are suited to the exigencies ol 
her imperiled condition. 

These unhappy voices are to-day still ringing in our eara, 
and while as we hop^, they breathe the herald notes of a vio- 
torious and regenerating peace, they yet utter their words 
of warning, admonishing each State to ^'epair all her wast© 
places, to throw open to the fruitful influences of the sun all her 
silent forests, to excavate from sunken vein and mountain wall, 
her stores of tmdisturbed mineral wealth, and as rapidly as pos- 
sible, to concentrate upon her soil, a busy and industrious 
population. 

The debt of the United States, from an amount, which four 
years ago, was scarcely more than nominal, has suddenly, un- 
der the terrible necessities of a rebellion, involving the national 
existence, been swelled to figures and proportions almost be- 
yond the capacity of mortal management, and this debt can 
only be borne, and honorably discharged through the irioreased 
wealth of the several States composing the great Federal 
XJni®n; for as the aggregate wealth of communities composes^ 
that of the State, so the aggregate wealth of the several? 
States, makes up the grand total of resources for the United 
States. Nor is this public debt all that rests upon the citizen. 
The debts of the several States, all more or less increased by 
the exigencies of the war; the debts of the various counties; 
the township debts; and the yet further indebtedness of the 
individual citizen, must with its interest, all be added to the 
great national debt, before we can fully realize our financiaf- 
condition and its claims upon us. Were I able in reliable star 
tistics here to jjlace before you, tho towering pile of figures 
thus composing the debit side of the nation, I should certainlj 
win a ready assent to the statement Just made, that something 
besides existing wealth, must cancel these vast obligations of 
our day. It cannot be drawn from the fabulous resources of 
Wall Street, nor from the green boxes of retired millionaires. 
It cannot by any sti'oke of financial -wisdom be evoked frora 



the groat reservoirs of European capital; nor called into exist- 
ence by rubbing the modern Aladdin lamp in the form of a 
Bank Engraver's steel plate; but it must and can only proceed 
from wealth newly created; from that which is to-day locked 
fast in the mine, hid in the forest, or slumbering still in the un- 
tilled acres of our virgin soil. Immigration must be encour- 
aged, settlements promoted by judicious j)ubhc improvements, 
communities buUt up in regions now awaiting their approach; 
and the strong arm of man universally quickened into active 
and productive industry. 

The giant growth of the United States sprang originally — 
and in a very few years as we measure the life of a great 
nation— from a few scattered settlements on its bleak and for- 
bidding coasts. Those settlers came not in crowded fleets, 
flanked by the iron clads of fhodern times, and sustained with 
all the resources of later days; but crowded in frail barks, like 
those which lux) centuries ago wrestled with the perilous ocean; 
were comijelled ou making laud to kindle their fires, and build 
theii' huts in the presence of a savage race, who threatened 
them with early expulsion, or extermination. 

Nevertheless, they courageously planted their feeble settle- 
ments; and these gradually approaching each other, formed 
first communities, then handets, towns, counties and colonies, 
and ultimately in the progress of their political development, 
vast States, out of which in due time sprang that final triumph 
of an enlightened civilization, our own Federal Union. 

Two important lessons are here put on record for the benefit 
of the nation as it still moves resistlessly forward in its wide 
circuit of seK-expansion, and they may be thus stated, viz. : — 
the early and full acquaintance of every new State with its own 
resources, and the rapid concentration of men upon the soD 
with a view to settlement and development. 

Every separate State, therefore, should make haste to examine 
her own home resources, their capacity of increase, and the best 
mode of developing those yet lying dormant. By an intelligent 
policy of this sort, when fairly and broadly put into operation, 



each State will be enabled over and above her mere quota of 
Federal and State taxation, to make early and easy contribu- 
tion towards the payment of that large debt which the people 
have resolved to meet rather than suffer the Government to 
drift away into floating fi-agments of State contention and na- 
tional imbecility. For when this debt shall have been can- 
celed, the nation will have achieved its final and grandest tri- 
umph. And this mode of triumphing over difficulties appa- 
rently insuperable, is in accordance with the true American 
spirit, which halts at no obstacle, and spares no effort in the 
accomplishment of its purpose. This it is that inspires her 
people to span the unnavigable flood with the airy but massive 
railroad bridge, to tunnel the mountain rather than climb it, 
and which will yet enable them to defy the ocean, and encircle 
the globe with the vocal wires of the electric telegraph. 

It will be our purpose so to apply these monitions of the past 
to the present affairs of our own State, as to render apparent 
the practical duty not only of the legislator, but of every citizen 
who is interested in the pubhc welfare, or jealous of the national 
honor. 

The State of Michigan consists of two Peninsulas, known as 
the northern and southern, the land area of which is 56,243 
square miles, or 35,995,520 acres; being 1.91 per cent, of the 
total area of the United States. The population in 18G0 was 
751,956. The northern Peninsula embraces all that portion 
of the north-western territory l}ing between lakes Michigan 
and Superior, and east of the rivers Menominee and Montreal, 
which form the boundary between it and the State of Wisconsin. 
It is at present divided into eight counties. Its extreme north- 
ern situation, prohibiting its use for agricultural purposes, 
(except to a very limited extent, in the vicinity of settlements,) 
jts population have been hitherto confined to the development 
of the minerals peculiar to the region. The undeveloped por- 
tion of the mineral region embraces the larger part of the coun- 
ties of Ontonagon, Houghton and Marquette. The remaining 
portion yet unsettled will be referred to hereafter. 



The southern half "of the State is a magnificent Peninsulaj 
280 miles in length, and 200 miles broad, in its extremest 
width. Surrounded on all sides, except its southern, by the 
waters of the great lakes, dashing like vast seas, it possesses a 
coast line of one thousand miles; and this, with another thou- 
sand miles on the Upper Peninsula, gives to the State over 
2,000 miles of coast. This estimate does not include the coast 
lines of the islands, in either of the three great lakes which wash 
the borders of the State. This entire coast line is securely acces- 
sible at various points, and by its natural and improved harbors, 
together with the St. Mary's and Welland canals, opens the 
mineral, agricultural and other products of both Peninsulas, to 
the trade of the world. 

The southern or settled part of the Lower Peninsula is al- 
most exclusively an agricultural region; possessing such varie- 
ties of prairie openings, and timbered lands, as are rarely 
found in any other portions of the United States. It is also 
beautifully diversified with lakes, abounding in fish; and dis- 
plays every variety of timber known to the climate. 

The coal and salt basins are found in this Peninsula; and 
from developments already made, their products must soon 
take rank with the most important of our State. 

The recent incipient establishment of manufactures among 
us, involving the use of all the different varieties of hard and 
soft timber, (except the pine of commerce,) such as oak, maple, 
butternut, basswood, &c., is bringing into active demand all 
this heretofore neglected class of our woods, which are reck- 
oned as superior to those found in any other State. Massa- 
chusetts annually carries away from us immense quantities of 
them for the use of her shovel and other manufactures — thus 
bringing prominently into market a prolific source of wealth 
which has hitherto lain dormant. 

But as the unsettled portions of the State constitute the 
main subject of our reflection, we proceed at once to a con- 
sideration of them. 

The northern or Upper Peninsula, excepting the different 



8 

towns and localities dependent on the mines, is wlioUj on 
unsettled region, and comprises upwards' of nine millions of 
acres, or fourteen thousand square mUes — a tract larger than 
the three States of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode 
Island. 

Aside from its mineral wealth — now only beginning to be 
developed — its value may be said to consist chiefly in its tim- 
ber, and not in any agricultural capacities. 

This timber is of that class which is absolutely necessary to 
the mines, and wiH be so appropriated and used. Yet there 
are districts within the mineral region of the Upper Peninsula 
which are covered with valuable hard timber, among which 
may be seen some of the finest tracts of birds-eye maple anj 
where to be found. This has been observed at Grand Islanct 
the Ance, and at Portage Lake. 

The remaining portion of the Upper Peninsula (not the 
mineral,) is valuable principally for its pine timb 3r, althougli in 
the region of the two Peninsulas of the Big and Little Bay de 
Nocquet, there is to be found a very sui^erior hard timber, 
with a good soil for agricultural purposes. This is perhaps the 
exception as to this sort of land in the Upper Peninsula. AH 
of it has recently been taken up by parties interested in the 
location there of iron furnaces. 

Passing down on to the Loijoer Peninsula, we find the follow^ 
iug unsettled portions, viz: 

1st. A small region on the lesser Peninsula, between Sagi- 
naw Bay and the River St. Clair, comprising portions of 
Huron, Tuscola, SanUac, Lapeer and St. Clair counties. 

2d. Nearly the whole of the Southern Peninsula north from 
the centre line of Gratiot, Montcalm, Mecosta, Newaygo ajid 
Muskegon counties; or north fi'om a line midway between the 
Detroit and Milvtaukec Raih-oad and the Muskegon river, and 
the Chippeway river, of Saginaw county. 

This whole region, embracing thirty-four counties, possesses 
an area of thirteen millions of acres, or over twenty thousand 
square miles — equal in extent to the three States of Connecfci- 



• 9 

ciat, Massacliusettg and Vermont, whicli together, comprise but 
twenty thousand square miles. If to this we add the nine 
million of acres, or the 14,000 square miles of unsettled lands 
in the Upper Peninsula, we have a total unsettled territory of 
twenty-two millions of acres, or thirty-four thousand square 
miles. 

The great extent of this region will appear by a . comparison 
of it with the three principal counties composing the kingdom 
of Great Britain and Ireland. It is two thousand six hundred 
and seventy-six square miles larger than Scotland ; one thousand 
four hundred and ninety-two square miles larger than Ireland, 
and three-fifths the area of England. Thsee are the unsettled 
regions, merely, of our State. 

The unsettled portion of the Lower Peninsula, as above de- 
lineated, is almost a wilderness; the exceptions in the interior 
being the very limited settlements induced by the lumber busi- 
ness. Nevertheless, there is included in this area numerous 
promising points along the coasts of Lakes Huron and Michi- 
gan, such as Tawas City, Alpena and Harrisonville, on Lake 
Huron; and on Lake Michigan, Stoney Creek, Pent water, 
Pere Marquette, and settlements at Big and Little Saublo 
rivers, Manistee, Portage, Aux Bee Scies and Grand Traverse 
Bay. It should be here remarked that a very rapid settlement 
has been latterly growing up in the region of Traverse Bay, and 
on the extreme northwestern portion of the Lower Peninsula, 
where, notwithstanding its high latitude, the proximity of the 
vast waters of Lake Michigan, and other influences not yet 
fully comprehended, seem to render it a peculiarly desirable 
region for agricultural purposes, and for the raising of fruit. 

Several settlements in the interior should also be noted in 
Isabella, Mecosta and Newaygo counties; such as Big Eapids 
on the Muskegon, which is already reached by a State road; 
Isabella City, and one or two others. The southern portions of 
Newaygo and Oceana counties, and the northern parts of Gra- 
tiot and Muskegon counties, ought fairly to be reckoned within 
thie settled regions of the State, although the actual settlements 



10 

are as yet very sparse, all being drawn thither by the lumber 
interest of those localities. 

The unsettled portion of the lesser Peninsula above de- 
scribed, as lying between Saginaw Bay and the River St. Clair, 
and by school-boys sometimes denommated "the thumb" of the 
State, is now being settled to a considerable extent by Cana- 
dians, attracted thither principally by the value of the timber, 
and the fact that the lauds were for some time offered at the 
lowest graduation prices fixed by the United States Govern- 
ment. This law, however, was repealed in 1862, on the passage 
of the Homestead Law. 

This region may be classed with the pine timbered portion 
of the State, and possesses great value as a field for lumbering, 
the timber consisting principally of pine, hemlock and oak. 
Yet it is not unsuited to agricultui'al purposes, as is indicated 
by settlements already referred to. In this region and within, 
the limits of Huron county, and at Point Aux Bai'ques, are 
found quarries of valuable grit or grindstones, and also flag- 
stones. Several stones weighing upwards of three tons each 
have already been taken out by the proprietors; and the stones 
are said to be well adapted not only to flagging, but also for 
window caps, sills and water-tables. Its color is pronounced 
preferable to that of the Ohio free-stone, and when wrought, 
has much the appearance of the Waverly stone. It is said also 
to contain less iron matter than the Ohio stone, and is conse- 
quently less likely to stain under the action of the weather. 

I may here remark that the enterprising people of Bay City 
have now in contemplation the construction of a line of railroad 
southeasterly from that place and about thirty-five miles in ex- 
tent, through the counties of Tuscola and LajDeer, to a point on 
the line of the Port Huron and Milwaukee road, now being reor- 
ganized for construction, and thence through to the River St. 
Clair, and by the Grand Trunk and its connections to the va- 
rious markets of the East. This road, if built, will unlock the 
timber treasures of Tuscola and Lapeer cotmties especially. 



14 

and would quickly open to settlement the large tracts of valua- 
ble land along this proposed route. 

Before proceeding to give the topographical character of the 
northern jiortion of the Lower Peninsula, and not including the 
region just described, it may not be inaj^propriate to remark, 
that the reports of the early U. S. surveys of this region, 
which a few years since were discovered to be fi'audulent, indi- 
cated to a very large extent a district of inaccessible and unin- 
habitable swamps and worthless land. 

The discovery of these frauds led to a resurvey by the Gov- 
ernment of this entire region. These resurveys were made by 
well known citizens of the State, among whom were the late- 
William A. Burt, a man whose name is now forever identified 
with his profession, the Hon. Lucius Lyon, now deceased, and 
Mr. Orange Risden, now residing in Saline, in this State. To 
these gentlemen, we are originally indebted for the valuable 
information, we now jjossess in reference to the character and 
resources of this part of the State, and which for so long a 
time, lay beclouded under these fi-audulent surveys. How 
much injury has been done to the State in the way of delaying 
its settlement, in consequence of this betrayal of trust by the 
original surveyors, we are onlj of late beginning to estimate. 
Doubtless we have lost by means of it; the benefits of at least 
fifteen or twenty years of the pioneers' and settlers' labors in 
this direction. 

This northern portion of the Southern Peninsula as we have 
already bounded it, is composed of two divisions, which we 
may appropriately designate as the Eastern and Western- 
Slopes of the Peninsula, and all parts of which are abundantly 
and suitably watered by stream and lake. 

The principal of these streams are the western branches of the= 
Saginaw, the Rifle river, the Aux Gies, the Aus Sable aud its 
tributaries, Thunder Bay river, and the Sheboygan, all of Lake 
Huron; Boardman's river, of Grand Traverse Bay; the Aux 
Bee Scies, the Manistee and its tributaries, and the Big and 
Little Sauble, of Lake Michigan; the Pere Marquette, White 



12 

river, the Muskegon, and some of the waters flowing into 
Grand river. 

These streams are invaluable, nay, indispensable to the f utur& 
development of this entire region. Each one of those empty- 
ing into Lake Michigan, and so of all the streams along tho 
entire western coast of the Peninsula, has, at its mouth, as will 
be seen by reference to the map, a natural lake or harbor, 
admirably, and apparently providentially desigu'^d to facilitate 
the holding of logs brought down these various streams, to the 
places of manufacture and shipment. la view of the impossi- 
bility of booming loi(s outside, amid the rough waters of Lake 
Michigan, and the impracticability of retaining them in tho 
streams themselves, until converted into lumber, it will bo seen 
how important and valuable a feature these lake outlets are to 
the entire timbered region from which they take their source, 
and through ^\hich they fui'nish the facilities of floatage. 

The eastern slope of this portion of the Peninsula, which 
embraces all the regions watered by the streams above named, 
as flowing into Lake Huron, in respect to its agricultural 
adaptations, and having regard only to its general features, is 
for the most part inferior to most othe;' portions of the i'tafe. 
The chief value of the land located north of Saginaw bay, on 
this slope, consists in its pine timber, which ranks generally 
with the best timber of the State. An exception, however, 
should here be tDade of certain territory, embracing nearly two 
counties, which is a vast sandy pine barren, covered with a 
scanty growth of scrub pine, and supposed to be unfit for culti- 
vation, (Oscoda and Crawford.) 

Tbis eastern slope remains yet largely unexplored, except 
with reference to pine timber, and lying as it does geologically, 
discoveries may hereafter be made of importance and value. 

Extensive and valuable beds of marble have been discovered 
in the county of Presque Isle, and the lands are owned by par- 
ties who expect soon to bring the same into practical use. 

Superior water lime, in beds sufficient for aU practical pur- 
poses, have also been found in this region; and a lively inquirj 



13 

ia now making in respect to the possibility of discovering- 
fionrces of petroleum springs or wells in the county of Alpena, 
and vicinity, as well as further south in tlie rapidly developing 
county of St. Clair. 

Dui-ing the last two years very extensive beds of plaster 
have been discovered on Tawas bay, and about forty miles 
from Saginaw. It covers a tract of G90 acres of land, and has 
been pronounced by those who have examined it, inexhaustible. 
A few rods back from the shore, where it is now worked, tho 
bed is found to be ten feet thick, increasing rapidly in thick- 
ness as you recede from the shore. Thirty rods back, from the 
present opening, an excavation has been made to the depth of 
eighteen feet without reaching the bottom. The entire bed is 
five feet above the water level of Lake Huron, and is readily 
and inexpensively drained. This plaster is almost entirely 
free from foreign ingredients, of a much purer quality than 
that of Ohio, and can be ground at half the expense of the lat- 
ter. This mine of wealth is being industriously opened by its 
owners, several buildings having been erected, a good dock 
built, a saw-mill, planing and shingle machine put into opera- 
tion, and other improvements begun. Capital applied to its 
development, could not fail, even under the disadvantages of 
the present scarcity and high price of labor, to reap very large 
returns. 

In this region and north-west of Tawas Bay, is a tract of 
beautiful undulating and well watered lands, embracing several 
townships in extent, which has by experiment, been already 
found well adapted to agricultural pui'suits. 

Along the coast of Lake Huron are extensive and valuable 
fishing grounds, very remunerative to those who engage in this 
business, and highly attractive to capital. They must ere long 
be made to yield large amounts of wealth to those who shall 
prosecute tbem on a liberal scale and with systematic energy. 

The counties of Gladwin, Clare, Isabella and Midland, upon 
the western branches of the Saginaw river, and extending to 
the Bay, including the southern part of Bay county, and con- 



14 

Btituting a portion of this Eastern SlojDe, possess all the ad- 
vantages of this new region, in respect to timber and agricul- 
tural resources. Timber settlements are springing up within 
their limits, attracted there by this particular interest. Did 
time permit, much might be said in detail as to the resoui'ces 
of these counties, especially of Midland and Isabella, the latter 
-of which is agriculturally, one of the very richest of our north- 
em counties. Except for the retarding influences of the Indian 
Reservations, which are located in this vicinity, this county would 
ere this have been far in advance of her present condition. 
The settlements in the two counties last named, including also 
the county of Gratiot, are intimately connected with the Sagi- 
naw Valley, whose lumber establishments are mainly dependent 
on them for then- annual sujiply of logs. 

The western slope, embracing the territory north of the 
mouth of the Muskegon river, and along its waters, including 
all that region already referred to as watered by the Manistee 
and other rivers emptying into Lake Michigan, is by far the 
best portion of northern Michigan for agricultural purposes. 

Its favorable position in respect to the ridge running north 
and south, and dividing the waters of Lakes Hui'on and Michi- 
gan, whose surrounding waters afford to it a peculiarly mild 
and even tempered climate, together with its rich soil and 
large tracts of hard timber, interspersed with pines, combine 
io make it a peculiarly desirable region for all settlers devoting 
themselves to the cultivation of the ground. 

The Grand Traverse region, akeady so well and favorably 
known, embraces a territory almost exclusively adapted to agri- 
culture, and is now being quite rapidly settled. The surprising 
retiu'ns of this region for the last two or three years, cannot fail 
to have arrested the attention of e\erj observing citizen; and 
conclusively demonstrate, that it must soon take rank with the 
very first agricultural portions of the State. The abundance of 
its hard wood, (princij)ally beech and maple,) its proximity to 
Lake Michigan, and its noble bay, give more than ordinary 
value to its lauds; and in connection with the existing large de- 



15 

mand for wood, cannot fail very materially to aid in the settle- 
ment of the country embraced within its limits. 

This Grand Traverse region, so called, may be said to extend 
from the month of the Au Bee Scies River eastward to the 
head waters of the Manistee, and northward to Grand and Lit- 
tle Traverse bays, including- the slender Peninsula west of 
Grand Traverse. 

From Traverse City, in a southwesterly direction, a chain of 
beautiful lakes is found, forming the head wa^rs of the AuBec 
Scies River. West of these, are several quite large lakes lying 
near the coast; the principal of which is Crystal Lake, covering 
an area of 15 square miles, with deej), pure and cold water, 
surroiinded by high banks, and capable of readily floating the 
immense quantities of timber now standing round about it, to 
points of shipment near the coast of Lake Michigan, and from 
which it is securely separated by a narrow strip of high sand 
banks, about half a mile in width. 

Upon the banks of this beautiful sheet of water, and about 
seven miles from the Aux Bee Scies River, a settlement com- 
posed of stirring citizens of Ohio has latterly been made. These 
men, while oj)ening the country on which they have planted 
themselves, have taken care to provide substantial institutions 
of learning for their chUdren, and pro\isions for the f ounda - 
tion of a coUege have already been made. 

The communication of this settlement (which bears the 
name of Benzonia,) with Lake Michigan, is by the waters of 
the river just mentioned; yet, in the improvement of the 
country. Crystal Lake may be made largely available, as its 
western limits are only two miles from the harbor at the mouth 
of the Au Bee Scies river, where a town under the name of 
Frankfort has been organized, and where substantial improve- 
ments have been commenced, .with a view of securing not only 
to that region, but to the marine of the entire coast, a superior 
and permanent harbor of refuge. 

The settlement at Traverse City, through its enterprising 
founders, ;^IIaanah, Lay &. Co., is too weU known to need any 



16 

description here. Its lumber and agricultural interests have 
already converted it into one of the most important points in 
the State, and its future growth bids fair to be rapid, and in 
the character of its population, valuable to the State at large. 
Druing the last two years, whole towmships lying between 
Traverse City and Frankfort liave been settled and organized. 

Other thriving towns have sprung up in tliis region, among 
which are Elk Eapids, Northpoi-t, now a port of entry, and 
Glen Arbor, all which have received an impetus in their growth 
from the wood trade with Chicago, and her passing steamers. 
Four hundred steamboat arrivals are registered at Northport 
for each of the last three or four years; and during the last 
year there has been cut and shipped to the Chicago market, by 
Elk Eapids and Traverse City upwards of twenty million feet 
of lumber. 

So far as settlers have entered this region, but one opinion 
prevails in respect to the desu'ableness of it for farming pur- 
poses. Fruit and horticulture are also most successfully car- 
ried on, and there is every promise that this northern portion 
of the State, will soon bo found equally i^roductive in these re- 
spects with that further south. Some facts having a bearing 
on this statement might here be given; such as this, that pota- 
toes can be safely left in the hills, all winter, and bo dug out for 
use as required. This was the case, as I have been informed, 
with 150 biTshcls at Elk Rapids last winter. The early and deep 
fall of snow peculiar to the region, and the shelter of the for- 
ests seem to prevent the frosts from penetrating the ground to 
any depth, while the waters surrounding it contribute largely to 
temper their severity. Last winter when the thermometer was 
at 40° below zero in Milwaukee, it stood at only 14° below at 
Frankfort; and wlien 29° below zero at Detroit, it was only 7° 
below at Traverse City. There is in fact, no portion of the 
comparatively nnsottled regions of the Slate, which offer such 
marked advantages to the settler as that just described. 

Leaving the limits of the Grand Traverse region as above 
defined, we come into the pine regions along the Manistee,- and 



17 

the Big and Little Au Sable rivers. This region is almost ex- 
clusively occupied for lumbering purposes, possessing its settle- 
ments and some organized towns and villages, adjacent to 
which some considerable farming has been done. The settle- 
ments at the mouths of the streams on Lake Michigan have 
sprung from the lumbering interest; and all these streams are 
furnished, at or near their mouths, with those valuable lake 
booms already described; such as the Manistee, the Big and 
Little Au Sable, Pere Marquette, Pent Water, White river and 
Muskegon. These lumber settlements, however, at the mouths 
of rivers, have little or no influence in the way of opening up 
or setthng the regions back of them; and although they are 
becoming quite extensive, and are carrying on a large trade 
with Chicago, nevertheless, in looking at this region as a whole, 
we must reckon it as still a part of the unsettled portion of the 
State. 

The interior portion of this western slope, lying south of the 
hmits of the Grand Traverse region, and extending to and be- 
yond the Muskegon, and remote from the coast, possesses, so 
far as known, many advantages besides the lumber lining its 
streams, in reference to which only it has as yet been explored. 
A favorable fact in connection with it, as a whole, is that in 
constructing a road through it from Grrand Rapids to Grand 
Traverse, only one mile of swamp was passed in the distance 
of 150 miles. 

In the valley of the Muskegon, settlements are springing up» 
and several towns of some importance already exist there; and 
no little attention is beginning to be paid to the interests of 
agriculture. 

Taking our stand, then, at a common centre of this entire 
part of the Peninsula, say at Houghton Lake, in Roscommon 
county, we see stretching eastward in Iosco and Ogemaw coun- 
ties, the fine farming and pine regions already described; to the 
south, the counties of Gladwin, Clare, Midland and Isabella, 
with the difierent peculiarities already awarded them; to the 



18 

northeast, the region of Thunder Bay, with its vast and heavy 
masses of pine— the Au Sable of Lake Huron intervening with 
its large power of floatage, and penetrating the pine tracts 
north of Houghton Lake. 

These tracts on the head waters of the Au Sable and the 
Manistee (both of which streams here run fifteen miles south- 
wardly and parallel with each other^ — the Manistee then de- 
flecting southwesterly through a varied region of jnne and hard 
wood into Lake Michigan) extend northwardly, with the valley 
of the Cheboygan, as far as the Straits of Mackiuaw. To the 
westerly and southwest, we have the region just referred to as 
comparatively unexplored, but containing a large amount of 
valuable timber, and extending down to the pine regions of the 
coast; and to the northwesterly the Grand Traverse region al- 
ready dehueated at some length. 

Having thus taken a cursor}' bird's-eye view of the interior of 
this northern region, it may not be uninstructive to extend the 
range of our vision along its coast line. Commencing at the 
mouth of the Muskegon river, which supports a village of that 
name, and passing northerly along the coast, we have a region 
of low land, with various sorts of timber upon it. Next, we 
have White river, which boasts several settlements along the 
borders of White Lake, which forms its mouth. Then still 
northwardly, we pass through the fine farming region of Oceana 
county, which here thrusts itself quite down to the Lake, and 
after passing through a similar region traversed by Stony 
Creek and the Pent Water, (excei:)ting the sand blufts at Little 
Point Au Sable,) we reach the mouth of the Pere Marquette 
river. Thence along the coast northerly we have a stretch of 
bleak sand bluffs embracing the region of Big Point Au Sable. 
Passing then the mouths of the Big and Little Sable rivers, at 
which points are two new and thriving villages, known as Lin- 
coln and Hamlin, the former at the mouth of the Little Au Sa- 
ble, and the latter at the mouth of the Big Sable, we reach 
the mouth of the Manistee; which, with its town, is already a 
point of importance. This river, which takes its rise far in the 



19 

interior, in the county of Otsego, may be considered as the 
southern and southeastern boundary of the Grand Traverse re- 
gion. Lea-ring the Manistee, we find the hard wood of this 
beautiful region, extending directly down to the coast, and 
skirting it northward as far as the region of Little Traverse 
Bay, indicating the superior soil we have already accredited to 
this part of the State. Passing round through tbe Straits, we 
find the coast of Lake Huron presenting no feature:) worthy of 
especial notice, until we reach Thunder Bay, wh'ch is a beauti- 
ful and br.^ad sweep of water, with fine advantages as a lumber 
site, and holding an immense body of pine in its rear. Thence 
southerly to Saginaw Bay, the coast is generally low and unin- 
viting, presenting no attractions excepting the different lumber 
aet'lements and fishing points, which need not be here enumer- 
ated. 

Having thus, by our somewhat imperfect description, laid be- 
fore the eye, these vast unsettled regions, we proceed to refer 
to some of the causes which have operated to debar settlement 
from them, and then to suggest some modes of action in con- 
nection with their future. 

The Indian Reservations, particularly in Isabella county, at 
Little Traverse and Pere Marquette, and also in Mason and 
Oceana counties, have for a number of years, embarrassed and 
excluded settlement. Some of the very best lands in this vi- 
cinity were thus tied up for a number of years, much to the an- 
noyance of bona fide settlers who seeking their possession, were 
compelled to turn aside, and locate elsewhere. But, as is now 
understood, these reservations for the most part, run out in 
July next, and so the restrictions referred to, bid fair at last to 
be removed. 

Another agency, and perhaps the most injurious in its con- 
.sequences to the region we have been considering, has been the 
■extensive retirement or reservation of lands, growing out of 
our raih'oad grants. Had the roads only been constructed in 
good faith, and within the time prescribed by the acts regula- 
ting the same, and devoting the lands to this pui-pose, no serious 



20 

miscbief would probably have ensued; for the roads would them- 
selves have opened the wilderness to the settlers, and drawn 
them in by multitudes. But as this was not done, and the 
time for building was extended, and the lands were still kept 
out of the reach of the settler, and in the hands of speculating 
corporations, Avho preferred private values in stock and bonds, 
to public values, in the form of growing communities and set- 
tled towns, along the lines of their prescribed routes, the ob- 
servmg and incoming settler has been turned adrift, and the 
doors of this region indefinitely barred against his entrance. 

Lideed, all that has been done hitherto in the construction of 
railroad routes in the State, has been inspired by the desire to 
secure a route through and over its borders; not penetrating 
and bearing the tide of settlement into its interior regions, but 
carrying it forward and at lightning speed into the Spates of 
Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa and Northern Missouri, This policy, 
so far as these raihoad companies are concerned, was undoubt- 
edly for their best interests, and is so far commendable. But, 
(excepting the beneiit conferred on those portions of the State 
through which they run, and that is by no means small,) this 
policy is none the less detrimental to the State, in resjject to lo- 
cahziiig improvements and settlements. Many if not all of our 
Western States, like Wisconsin and Illinois, in the judicious 
constructi,)n of theii" railroads, as well as by special efforts di- 
rected towards the securing of settlers from abroad, have rap- 
idly filled and built up their unsettled territory; while Michi- 
gan, through which the currents so attracted have poured, has 
been passed by, receiving little if any of the living tide. 

In proof of the statement that the exclusively "through" char- 
acter of our roads has largely aided these new States at our ex- 
pense, we need only refer to the fact, that in some of the newly 
settled portions of our State, such as the county of Montcalm, 
settlers from Wisconsin who had first been whirled in thither,, 
and actually settled, have subsequently retraced their steps, 
though at much additional expense, and chosen their homes iit 
the very wilderness of our own State. What they wanted was- 



21 

a region furnished with timber. Michigan was the spot they 
were really seeking after, but they were borne through it with- 
out a chance to halt and examine its attractions. 

The roads, however, to which we refer, being designed to open 
the country, were strengthened for their object by these special 
grants of lands, and not left to the. chances of j)rivate cajDital. 
Capital in respect to enterprises of this sort, is timid, and will 
not generally consent to build a road, unless it sees that a lu- 
crative traffic is ready to beat the rail as soon as laid. There- 
tfore, there is no excuse for those who, aided and commissioned 
by these extraordinary resources, to open up the yet unbroken 
regions of the State, and let in active life and busy settlement, 
still suffer themselves to stand in default before the people, 
demonstrating that it is their oion, and not the pubHc welfare, for 
which they are most concerned. The State, where they are 
satisfied that due and fair progTCss has not been made by those 
corporations who have assumed to make these lands available 
for the purposes of giving us new roads, should refuse further 
extension of time, and allow them to die of their own Hmita- 
tion, which will be in the month of June, 1866. 

They should then take these lands back into theii- own hands, 
by appljdng to Congress for such modification of the original 
act of Congi'ess, as wiU save them to the State for railroad 
purposes, and this. Congress would no doubt readily consent 
to do. The mode of carrying out this measure might in brief, 
be stated thus: 

Let the proposed act of Congress, modifying the orginal act, 
provide that these lands should aU be devoted to their original 
purpose; but that the general Government should be author- 
ized to sell the lands at the present minimum price, or at a 
higher minimum rate, say $2 50 per acre, as might be thought 
best; that the proceeds of these lands should constitute an in- 
terest-bearing fund, in the hands of the General Government, 
as trustee for the State of Michigan ; that the State of Michi- 
gan should be authorized to control that fund whenever she 



542 

■wished to aid bona fide capital in its legitimate efforts to build 
substantially these same lines of road. 

The expression, " substantially the same lines of road," is used, 
because these lines can be shortened very materially, and still 
answer every purpose. The longest lines were i*esorted to, as is 
very well known, in order to secure the greatest amount of 
lands. 

Now the practical view to take of this matter is, to make 
these lands available as far as possible, for the best and perma- 
nent interests of the State. Defaulting corporations must give 
way to the paramount claims of the people, whose vital inter- 
ests demand that her unoccupied lands be opened to settle- 
ment at the earliest day practicable. By the plan suggested, 
the lands are saved to the State for railroad purposes; the Gen- 
eral Government has the use of the money derived from sales un- 
til the same shall be required for actual use ; the State is less hkely 
to squander the fund; bona fide capital will soon appear, and 
joining its means to the fund thus formed, the roads xvill be built; 
while, if operators without capital, are left to scheme for the 
construction of the roads on the lands alone, another decade of 
years will scai"cely see another ten miles of road. Let us there- 
fore, have done with further trifling on this important subject 

One of these routes the interests of the State require should 
be immediatelij constructed, and that is one connecting Saginaw 
with the Bay de Nocquet and Marquette Railroad by way 
of the Grand Traverse, which at Traverse City is 115 miles 
only, and at Frankfort about 120 miles, in a du'ect line from 
Saginaw. This would probably prove our shortest line to Lake 
Superior, and it could be substantially covered by modifications 
of the routes of the Amboy, Lansing and Traverse Bay Eail- 
road Company, or of the Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad 
Company. Many pressing reasons may be adduced in sup- 
port of the early building of such a road, some of which I beg 
leave here to submit. 

As is well known to the people of Michigan, a railroad has 
already been constructed from Bay de Nocquet, on the north 



23 

end of Green Bay, to Marquette and the iron region of that 
county. 

The importance of a direct connection with Lake Superior is 
such, that the people of Chicago are now taking active steps 
for the building of a railroad from Green Bay to Bay de 
Nocquet, so as to secure to them a summer and whiter connec- 
tion with Marquette, on Lake Superior. 

By reason of our peninsular position, we cannot get a winter 
connection with Lake Superior; but this after all, in a com- 
mercial point of view, is not essential, because the iron ore, 
which is the one product to be transported, and which is 
brought out at Bay de Nocquet, cannot be carried to advantage 
by ran beyond the water line. Here it must halt for manu- 
facture into irou, either at Bay de Nocquet, or pass over the 
Lake to our penmsular coast, at some point where abundance 
of timber, and easy facilities for shijoping can be obtained; such 
points, for instance, as Traverse City, or Frankfort, where 
wood abundant for this purpose, and superior harbor accom- 
modations, are to be had. 

The absence of wood at Chicago, or at any intervening point 
on the proposed railroad line from Green Bay to Bay de 
Nocquet, precludes the idea of advantageously transporting 
this ore elsewhere than to the points named above. 

Moreover, the construction of a railroad northwesterly, 
through the central part of this portion of the State, will neces- 
sarily secure to us all the advantages which appropriately and 
legitimately belong to the manufacture of the iron, the sale and 
conversion of the wood, and the prosperous opening and settle- 
ment of a large territory, which would thus naturally and 
speedily take place. The distance of road to be thus con- 
structed, is but a trifle more than that proposed by Chicago 
capitahsts, which secures to them only a connection with Lake 
Superior, without the manufacturing and other advantages 
just referred to, as being thus secured to us. For it wlU hardly 
be claimed that the proposed Chicago line can successfully 
carry either ore or freight in the "winter; and in the summer 



24 

the competition of water commvinication would dismiss all ex- 
pectations of anything like an extended business over this rail- 
road line. 

The enterprise of oj^ening a communication to Saginaw, has 
ah'eady had the attention of the Legislature, in connection with 
a State road between Saginaw and the Grand Traverse region; 
but the recent completion of the Bay d& Nocquet and Mar- 
quette Railroad renders this proposed new communication be- 
tween these two points an imperative necessity. 

Looking at the future imjDortance of the State's iron inter- 
-ests, and the development of its northern unsettled regions, 
there seems to be no measure or enterprise, which makes such 
large claims on the generoiTS and fostering care of the Legisla- 
ture as this. For the fact appears, that notwithstanding the 
generosity of Congress and the State, and the continuous ef- 
forts of those among us who appreciate the great importance of 
opening up this portion of the State, still almost nothing has 
as yet been practically accomplished, unless it be the diversion 
of a very large portion of the public lands from the hands of 
actual settlers, into the control of those -who, whatever may have 
been their private schemes, have utterly failed to accomplish 
the important ends i^roposed by these State and national bene- 
factions. It might be well for us, therefore, to consolidate, or 
otherwise so dispose of the land grants already conceded to the 
Grand Rapids & Indiana, the Amboy, Lansing & Traverse Bay, 
and the FHnt & Pere Marquette Railroad Companies, (at least 
80 far as the northern portion of these several routes are con- 
cerned,) as would speedily accomphsh this highly important 
end. 

The truth is, Michigan has been too long indifferent to the 
raikoad projects most closely allied with her own interests. 
Without doubt, by even a small proportion on our part, of that 
measure of effort which we have seen made by other States in 
tlieir behalf, we might also have secured a large proportion of 
their immigration, and so converted our present wildernesses 
into smiling settlements. Some ii-regular and spasmodic efforts 



35 

have been occasionally made, it is true, and no little proclama- 
tion of our resources now and then set forth in the public 
prints; but it has generally been of such a character, as to be 
destitute of much real or permanent value. Indeed, although 
it may seem ungracious so to declare, yet it is nevertheless true, 
that a large proportion of our citizens are to-day wholly or very 
largely ignorant of the value of our unsettled regions — quite as 
much so as they are of the resources of any of the States lying 
West of us. 

Hence the apathy that prevails on this subject, and the actual 
inability of citizens to attract the settler, even if they would, 
into our still unoccupied and valuable lands. The mere owners 
of large tracts of pine timber, are not interested particularly in 
the promotion of settlements, for the reason that their timber 
goes to distant markets, and is carried to the coast without the 
aid of roads, or the ordinary modes of civilized communication. 

But the true interests of the State will not longer allow this 
condition of things to continue. Active and sufficient measures 
for the ends contempled must be immediately initiated. The 
State, if she would have her lands sold and occupied, must act 
on the same practical principles, as the individual land-holder 
desiring to sell, and who by free but judicious expenditures, 
advertises his possessions, arrests the eye of the settler, draws 
him to his particular locahty, and so with comparatively little 
outlay, rapidly populates and improves his most secluded tracts. 

Although the State now holds under the swamp land grants, 
no inconsiderable amount of desirable lands, [not less alto- 
gether than acres,] still the largest portion of the 

imsold valuable lands, within the limits of the State, yet remain 
in the hands of the General Government. The principal part 
of the irreclaimable swamp lands belonging to the State, are lo- 
cated in the eastern portion of the Upper Peninsula, where by 
reason of the severity of the climate, and their peeuHar loca- 
tion, settlements can scarcely ever be expected. But we haz- 
ard the remark, that under the influences of future settlements, 
the larger part of the remainder of this class of lands may be 



26 

made available and desirable to purchasers, meanwhile they 
need careful supervisiou and control. 

The process of disposing of the United States government 
lands above referred to, is through the five local Land offices, 
at Detroit, Saginaw, Ionia, Traverse City and Marquette, and 
of the State lands through the State Land Office, at Lansing. 

These offices are designed only to give title to apphcants for 
lands as they present themselves; no system or plan of spread- 
in"- information in respect to them, or of soliciting purchasers- 
or inviting settlements, having ever been engrafted uj)on their 
land agencies by the general government. Those of us familiar 
with the existing arrangement, can hardly realize that stran- 
gers, and especially foreigners, do not equally with ourselves 
rmderstand its workings; while the fact is, that non-residents 
desiring to purchase lands, often wander into the State and 
out of it, without having succeeded in obtaining even the pre- 
liminary information necessary to the accomplishment of their 
purpose. Inquiring settlers of this kind are now daily passing 
through Detroit, in search of good lands for farming purposes,, 
with no one to point them to the region or county in which 
they may be found. 

In the absence of any encouraging information furnished 
them at the threshold of the State, and with no prospect of 
obtaining it elsewhere, there is little inducement for them 
blindly to exx:ilore the country in search of lands, which even 
when discovered, are frequently found already in the hands of 
others. This condition of things seems to demand the serious 
consideration and prompt action of those entrusted with the 
State's welfare. Every one of these thrifty settlers, and every 
colony of settlers who can be secured to the State are, in times 
such as these, well w^orth every effort and every reasonable 
expenditure of means in that direction. The attractions of the 
Central South are beginning, as never before, to turn the course 
of settlement from the "West — a fact to which we would do weU 
to take heed. Yet when we take into consideration the rare 
advantages offered in our noble system of pubHc schools, and 



.27 

the superior intelligence and culture of the people of our own 
State, especially, this ought not so to be. Indeed, stronger in- 
ducements are thus offered by Michigan to settlers of kindred 
tastes and culture, from the Eastern States, than are perhaps 
found in any other State or region. We should strive not only 
for immigration, but while so doing, our efforts should be di- 
rected, as far as possible, after the very best class of settlers to 
be had. A home immigration, so to speak, from New England 
and Western New York, is better for the State than a crude 
and unlettered foreign population, however much of an acqui- 
sition even they would be, in these days, when the necessary 
drafts of war are making such large inroads ujDon manly labor. 
What then, is the one great thing to do, in order to secure 
these two important ends, of placing before the public the value 
of the unsetted portions of the State, and securing theii* early 
settlement and development? 

Our reply to this inquiry is, the imniediale establishment by the 
Stale of a Land and Immigration Bureau. The same thing has 
just been recommended by Gov. Yates. This, for reasons so 
apparent as to need no enumeration here, should be located at 
the point where new comers and emigrants from other lands 
first enter the State and begin their inquiries. 

Among the first and most important duties assigned to this 
Bureau should be : 

1st. The collection and systematic arrangement of all exist- 
ing information in respect to unsold State and Government 
lands. 

On the removal of the United States Surveyor General's 
Office to St. Paul, in the year 18G0, all the field notes, books, 
plats and papers, pertaining to the land surveys in this State, 
were by law deposited with the State authorities at Lansing, 
where they still remain. These original maps, connected as 
they are with the field notes, (and of which they are transcripts,) 
form the basis of all the surveys of the State, from the remote 
days of our settlement as a tenitory, and are of inestimable 
value in all questions of disputed boundary hereafter to arise. 



28/ 

Aside from their value in these resj)ects, they embrace and ex- 
press all the reliable infoi'mation we have as to the topography, 
character of soil and varieties of timber, throughout the entire 
State. They should, therefore, be preserved as among oui' very 
choicest possessions. 

This large fund of useful information now practically un- 
available to us for v/ant of proper collection and location, 
might be made, in connection with the Bureau here proposed, 
of the very highest value in its practical workings. 

2d. There should also be at once adopted and pursued 
throughout the State, a rigid system in resj^ect to the subdivi- 
sion of sections, and the retracing and reestablishment of orig- 
inal lines of survey; and these duties would naturally appertain 
and belong to this Bureau. The appointee to it should there- 
fore be familiar with the government system of surveys, and 
with all the laws, rules and regulations affecting the same, so as 
to be able under all circumstances, to give direction and instruc- 
tion to county surveyors. 

The absence of all authority and instructions of this charac- 
ter, now controlling the action of this class of surveyors, has al- 
ready been the means of much confusion, and is daily sowing 
the seeds of serious litigation in regard to boundaries. It is 
proper, however, in this connection to remark, that this state 
of things is not so much attributable to the surveyors them- 
selves, as to the want of some recognized and authoritative 
system, founded upon the code of laws and rules adopted by 
the government, and which (being for the most part inaccessi- 
ble) are possibly quite unknown to many of those entrusted 
with the responsible duties of this important ofEce. 

3d. This Bureau should also be clothed with all needful pow- 
ers to employ and direct suitable persons, as well to examine 
and report upon lands, as to accompany settlers in their search 
after and choice of them. The expense of all persons so em- 
ployed, would for the most part bo cheerfully borne by the par- 
ties applying for lands, and the State saved from any large 
cost in these respects. Under the exercise of these powers, the 



29 

State would soon be possessed, in a compact form, of a minute 
statement or report as to the great body of her lands; and be- 
ing thus informed, could fix far more intelligently than at pre- 
sent, just and remunerative prices upon them. Thousands of 
dollars would in all probability thus be annually saved to the 
State; and possibly hundreds of thousands might so have been 
saved, had such a' system been adopted twenty years ago. 

This is particularly obligatory upon us in respect to the 
State's Mineral Lands, which have accrued to us through the 
operations of the swamp land grants. A single location of 
value might bring into the State Treasury many thousands 
of dollars, while a disposition of the same property without 
exploration, might as readily result in a return of less than a 
hundred dollars. This examination of mineral lands might be 
associated with a further geological survey of the unexplored 
region of the State, and all its advantai^es secured in this way 
at a comparatively small cost. But irrespective of cost, this- 
work should be done, and these returns secured to the State at 
the very earhest day practicable. There can be no loss on such 
an investment, but on the contrary, decided and affirmative 
gains. 

4th. Under the auspices of this department, agents might from, 
time to time, be employed to visit Eastern States and cities, and 
even foreign lands, with a view to disseminate information ; so 
that the steps of settlers may be turned hitherward in the full 
confidence of their obtaining here the object of their pursuit. 
Other special and auxiliary means to this end might be adopted 
from time to time, under the sanction of the Legislature as cir- 
cumstances called for their- employment; and so the stream of 
immigration, once commenced, would continue to flow in upon 
us with a steady but ever increasing current. 

5th. As the productions of a State are best shown by samples, 
of the same, there should also be committed to this depart- 
ment the selection, preservation and presentation to the public 
of the various minerals and other products found within our 
limits, all of which should be accompanied with apj)ropriate 



30 

statistics and suggestions to capitalists at home and abroad. 
In short all inforinatiou respecting existing resources, and all 
recent discoveries, with every fact calculated to arrest attention, 
and attract the settler, could be ajDjDrojoriately committed to 
this department for compilation, and general diffusion through- 
out the country. 

Eastern States have long since found it to their interest, to 
institute and maintain offices of this character; and the West- 
ern States would do well to imitate their example in this im- 
portant matter. At present, the want of such a State reposi- 
tory, with its different specimens, and its classiiied information 
and statistics, is almost daily experienced by every business 
man in the State. 

Still other features might be engrafted on this department, 
which would suggest themselves as it took shape, and pro- 
gressed in the dii'ection prescribed for its operations; and 
which need not encumber its action, or enlarge to any great 
degree its expenses. 

The simplicity of this plan of organizing and placing directly 
under the eye of the State, all its varied possessions, overrules 
at once the idea that it can only be achieved by some great ex- 
penditure of $50,000 or $100,000. The expense of obtaming 
and collating the main items of information necessary to the 
department, would not be large, for the reason that the greater 
portion of such information can now be had from the public 
offices, and from individuals who would be glad to furnish it, 
when once the Burpau was established. 

Nor would the general current exi:)ense of the entire depart- 
ment be heavy, if a proper system of compensation should be 
adopted, based upon commissions for lands sold and on fees 
for information furnished or for services rendered by the de- 
partment, to persons seeking the same for their own private 
purposes. 

Indeed, if committed to the right hands, it might be easily 
made to do much more than pay its own expenses, and become 
ultimately a soiu-ce of moderate revenue. But over and above 



31 

all this, it will much more than pay all outlay upon it, in the 
:8uperior benefits resulting to the State from the acquisition of 
settlers, and the sale of the public lands at prices correspond- 
ing to their real value. In this last particular alone, the ex- 
pense of the Department for years might be saved by the dis- 
covery and assessment of value upon the State's lands during 
the first year of its operations. 

For example, the chief value of the State swamp-lands (ex- 
cepting those in the mineral range) consists in the pine timber 
upon them. No discrimination in price has yet been made be- 
tween those covered with timber and such as are not thus fur- 
nished. Parties therefore who purchase at the minimum price, 
now enter upon these lands possessing the timber, strip them 
of their value by removing the same, appropriate the proceeds, 
and then abandon the lands, leaving them, for all purposes of 
.subsequent settlement, without any attractions whatever. But 
the explorations under the directions of this Department, from 
time to time, would (as already intimated) discover all this 
class of lands, and so enable the State to increase their price 
npon them, or to reserve them— as in our opinion they should 
be reserved — until they were reached by settlements. They 
would thus be made doubly subservient to the State; first by 
attracting settlers into their vicinity, and secondly, by supply- 
ing them with the character of timber required for building, 
and at prices remunerative to the State. Thus in a short time 
there would flow into the treasury large sums of money which 
now, under the semblance of a contract with the State, are 
annually stolen from its resources. 

Before dismissing this subject of a land and immigration 
Bureau, which in my opinion, holds, as in a nut-shell, the kernel 
of any State policy in resjDect to our undeveloped resources, 
which we may hereafter see fit to adopt, it is proper to add that 
^eat care should be exercised in making the appointment to 
this department. The selection and placing over it of the wrong 
man, might not only cause the experiment to fail at the very outset, 
but would be very likely, (as affairs of this sort generally work, ) 



32 

to prevent the State from lollowing' up the phxu here sketched, 
and without which, as it appears to me, nothing of real worth 
can, in this field at least, be profitably accomplished. 

The essential requisites in this appointee, should be capacity 
and integrity. This capacity should involve a thorough knowl- 
edge of our land-history, both Federal and State; a large 
practical experience in the matter of examining, valueing and 
selKng lands; superior executive abilities, and a wide acquain- 
tance with men both in and out of the State. The position 
should be lifted above party level, and filled as we would fill an 
agency to look after like interests for ourselves. Mere place- 
hunters, on the modern system of giving to the victors the 
party spoils, should, in this matter at least, be summarily set 
aside and refused a hearing'. The stake is too great to be 
thrown into the cauldron of party nourishment; such a course 
Avould be almost certain to result in merely giving one more 
man a chance to stand at the piiblic crib; that, and nothing 
more ! The integrity requu'ed, should be of that character 
which is exacted of those whom we place in the most confiden- 
tial relations with oi;r business. In such a place as this, a, false 
servant might do the State much mischief, while a true man, 
in the matter of opening up the State to settlement, and bringing 
to light her hidden resources, could do as much real pubUc ser- 
vice, as the Executive and Legislative departments of the State 
combined. 

Such a man the Executive could find, and being found, he 
should receive and be allowed to hold his appointment during 
good behavior, so that he might grow with the department over 
which he presided, and in and by such growth, aid and promote 
yet more and more, the growth of the State. 

Another topic Avhich cannot here be appropriately passed 
over, but which is more than sufficient of itseK for a lecture, is 
the subject of manufactures. 

The great variety of raw material abounding in our State, 
has already been referred to, and the hst might be yet further 



33 

enlarged had we time to do so. As it is, we can only express a 
thought or two on the general suject. 

Never before were such favorable opportunities offered a 
people to originate manufactures on a grand scale, as those 
which are now unfolding to us. The necessities of the nation's 
treasury, have set at rest for generations yet to come, all 
questions as to the expecUeacy of a prohibitory tariff. We have 
it, in full measure, on almost every article which we desh'e to 
work up into marketable material, so that protection may be 
said to be now permanently guaranteed to all American man- 
ufactures. 

In addition to the abundance and variety of oy\x material, it 
should not be forgotten, that our central western position as a 
State and our peninsular form, afford us facihties of transpor- 
tation east, west and south, and cheaper access to more markets 
for our commodities, both raw and manufactured, than those 
enjoyed by any one of our sister States. The iron and copper 
ores of Lake Superior for instance, may be brought down to 
the well-timbered coasts of the Lower Peninsula, and being there 
manufactured, can be economically dispatched westerly and 
and southeiiy, by "Wisconsin and lUinois, or easterly to the sea- 
board, and du'ect to Europe. Instead hereafter of being the 
dependents of Great Britaui for her manufactured articles, she 
will even begin to solicit us for some of ours. Glasgow is al- 
ready asking us for Lake Superior iron ; and unless we unhap- 
pily drift into a warlike exchange of a heavier commodity with 
this ungratious kingdom, it wiU not be many years before the 
sceptre of commercial empire, through the medium mainly of 
our vast and valuable manufactures, shall have passed from the 
boastful hand of Britain, into that of the towering and invin- 
cible Republic of the AVest. Our u-on mountains are only be- 
ing now unveiled, our copper mines only beginning to take 
remunerative shape ; our coal, a source of wealth, gypsum, salt, 
oil, (now poui'iug its millions mto the lap of Pennsylvania,) are 
yet to be devoloped, while our woolen, cotton and ware manu- 
factures have scarcely begnin to appear. 



34 

A French gentleman and natiu'alist, uamecl Trouveleau, hoav 
of Massaclinsetts, has recently discovered in our Cecropia and 
Polyjjheniia flies, two varieties of the siik worm, whose cocoon 
is foui" inches in length, and the iibre of whose silk is much 
stronger and the yield greater than those of European coun- 
tries. The v/orms feed in the open air on oak leaves, and 
require very little care. From his experiments with them, quite 
recently made, it may be safely asserted, tiiat silk culture on a 
most successful scale, is shortly to be added to the list of our 
native manufactures. Thus the path is opening for the nation 
to march forward into a total independence of foreign Govern- 
ments; strengthening upon herself the imperative obligations, 
of what the people have long since accepted under the name of 
" the Monroe doctrine," o.nd saying to foreign nations, as they 
anchor their navies a league from oui" coasts, " thus far may est 
thou come, bat no farther!" 

But it is alleged by those interested, that capital is deterred 
fifom investing in the development of these attractive materials, 
in consequence of burdensome taxation under existing provis- 
ions of law — that promising euteiprises have thus been fettered 
in then- feeblest years, while some have been strangled in theu' 
very bu'th. It is also asserted that while Illinois discriminates 
in avor of capital, Michigan discriminates against it, by taxing 
it eight times as much as is done in the former State; and that 
capitalists must continue to locate their factories elsewhere 
than in Michigan so long as these legal prohibitions remain 
upon her statute book. 

There is no doubt that it is for the interest of every govern- 
ment to encourage and cultivate manufactures. England and 
France cherish these interests as the very apple of the eye; dis- 
criminating by protection and appropriation, whenever and 
however it becomes right and proper so to do. Thus these 
two nations have largely multiplied then' wealth, and fastened 
tight then- commercial grasp upon the remauiing nations of the 
earth. 

"With little or no sirrplus wealth to be thus invested it be- 



35 

comes the duty of Michigan to do what she can to bring in the 
wealth and labor of others, in her efforts at self-development. 
Instead of erecting barriers against their approach, all obsta- 
cles should be removed and the way cleared for their entrance 
into tho-fields of our native but dormant wealth, and if needs 
be a premium of privileges offered to win their presence and 
citizen shijj. 

How far the operation of existing laws can be properly sus- 
pended in resj)ect to manufacturing associations not yet pay- 
ing dividends, and such as are hereafter to be organized, and 
how far, by special legislation, capital may be invited here to 
invest, are matters of appropriate, nay, even urgent considera- 
tion by our Legislature. Illinois, by her discriminating legisla- 
tion, in respect to manufactures, (such, among other privile- 
ges, as exempting from taxation all machinery thus employed,) 
has done much to build up this important element of commer- 
cial wealth within her borders. I^Iichigan, instead of extending 
like favors to the incoming capitalist, demands one per cent, 
on the capital of mining, and one -half of one -per cent, on the 
capital of manufacturing corporations. Within my own knowl- 
edge, the following discrepancy accidentally revealed itself in 
respect to the State taxation for the last year, uj^on a manu- 
facturing establishment in the city of Detroit; its capital being 
$100,000, the State tax under the law, was $500. But it so 
happened that the establishment having been but recently con- 
verted iuto a corporation from a business firm, the assessment 
had been made by the officers entrusted with this duty, upon 
the entire property, under the supposition that it stiU continued 
a firm, and the assessment //in.s made was only $82 ! a penalty 
of $418 paid for the privilege of being a manufacturiug corpo- 
ration. This same company annually pays, besides the $500 
to the State, the sum of $1,000 for city and county taxes, and 
$10,000 to the General Government, making an annual tax of 
$11,500 on a capital of $100,000. It has been heretofore as- 
serted as sound doctrine, that any man or estabhshment which 
paid ten per cent, interest for tneir capital, must soon run into 



36 

ruiu. Manufacturing establishments whose divideucls do not 
I'aMy expose them to such heavy burdens, ought to be re- 
lieved as far as practi(!able from this large specific tax. 

We are not apt to credit manufactures and machinery, aside 
from the home market they yield, with the large benefits they 
confer upon the producer, and especially upon the agricul- 
turist. They are to a large extent identified with each other. 
For example, one locomotive, in twenty-four hours, vrill perform 
as much in the way of transportation as -400 pau's of horses, 
with all the attendant retinue of wagons, teamsters, stables 
and taverns planted over the route of their travel. The differ- 
ence thus saved goes to swell the jn'ofit of the agriculturist 
upon his produce thus borne forward to market. No State in 
the Union has such great natural resources and facilities for 
manufactures as Michigan, and none has such excluding and 
repelling laws to the manufacturing capitalist as those found 
upon our statute book. 

Still, in order intelligently to legislate on this important sub- 
ject, facts should be gathered and digested. 

It might ])e well, therefore, if some authoritative steps were 
taken in the way of a Commission of Liquiry to ascertain and 
collate material facts upon this whole subject, with a view par- 
ticularly to elicit information on the following points : 

What are the existing provisions of laAV on this subject, and 
what their practical effect on nianufacturing estabhshments ? 

How do these laws compare with those on the same subject 
in other States, East and West, and especially in manufacturing 
States ? 

What changes in our laws, if any, are expedient ? 

And what further and special legislation may, in the exercise 
of a sound judgment, be deemed approi^riate in order to attract 
capital and induce its investment in the development and man- 
ufacture of our iinconverted mineral and other wealth ? 

This report, when made, should also present all the testi- 
mony and facts procured bv the commission, so that the same 



37 

might take permanent shape, as a valuable document for future 
reference. 

In conclusion, we have only to remark that in order success- 
fully to develop this great State, her citizens must all be an- 
imated with an open and generous fraternal sentiment towards 
each other. In all measui-es aflecting the public welfare, they 
must miflinchingiy follow the dictates of a sound and patriotic 
judgment, and not the mere whim, and ehj)emeral caprice of the 
selfish partizan. For if the people of each particular precinct, 
resolve that their influence and efforts, both in the Legislatiu'e 
and out of it, shall only be given and rendered for the benefit 
of their especial locality, we shall soon have nothing but jar- 
ring jealousies, wrangling contentions, warring restrictions, and 
general confusion and ill feeling on all sides. 

With the bloody and legitimate fruits of this selfish spirit 
immediately before us and now displayed to the world on a grand 
scale, in what is speciously styled a State rights rebellion, we 
should be very careful to guard ourselves against even the ap- 
parent approval of any such narrow and destructive policy. 
But, while we continue our efforts for its complete and final 
overthrow, and for the vindication of that broad but long- 
trampled constitutional right of intercitizenship throughout 
the Union, we should stand here at home, shoulder to shoulder 
for the common welfare of the State, and the perpetuity of the 
National Government. 

" In union there is strength," and without its spirit as well 
as its letter among the people, this beloved Government which 
has akeady cost us so much, and which, in itself, is worthy of 
every sacrifice, must utterly fail and perish. 

Let every citizen, then, rise to the level of oui* new condition, 
and promptly assume his share of duty in the upbuilding and 
enrichment of the State. 



THE STATE AGRICULTUIUL SOCIETY: 

ITS MEANS AND ENDS. 



Delivered January 18, 1865, before the Executive Committee of the 

State Agicultural Society, in Representative Hall, 

at Lansing, Mich., by 

Principal State Normal School. 



The means which any society employs should always be ade- 
quate to the end it proposes to attain. K the end j)roposed be 
wide and comprehensive — if it includes subordinate ends which 
are many and various — then the means must be equal in com- 
prehensiveness, variety and number; for it is a law as wide as 
the universe, that success in any enterprise depends uj)on the 
wise adaptation of the one to the other. 

Now, the object which called the Michigan Agricultural So- 
ciety into existence, is as broad in its scope as it is philanthi'opic 
in its spirit. It proposes to encourage not only the skillful til- 
lage of the soil, but also the more perfect development of all 
the values that spring from the soil, whether direct^ in vege- 
table, or indirectly in animal forms. To every honest worker, 
in any of the numerous branches of agriculture, it seeks to ex- 
tend the helping hand, stimulating him by every motive it can 
offer, to reach the largest possible excellence of product, with 
the least possible investment of labor and cash. Of every plant 
and animal and implement, it inquires rigidly its precise pur- 
pose, and aims so to increase its eflectiveness that it may answer 
that purpose with the smallest waste of muscle or material. It 



40 

would give to the roadster just that compactness of bone and 
muscle Yv'liich will secure a speed that is most rapid and sus- 
tained; to the draft-horse, just the complement of form and 
weight most conducive to strength and rugged endurance; to 
the sheep, just the breeding and treatment which will eventuate 
in an annual offering of the heaviest fleece, with the finest fibre ; 
to the dairy cow a process of assimulation so perfect and pecu- 
liar, that whatever the mouth devours the udder restores in the 
laro-est measure of the richest milk; and to the ox such a nice 
adjustment of form to fate, that he may bring to the block the 
least prox)ortion of ft-ristle and bone, to the largest proiwrtion 
of roimd and surloiu. 

But it is also within the province of this Society not o^ily to 
aid in adapting the animal forms to their ultimate uses, but 
likewise to help in determining what food will best subserve in 
quality and kind each of these various uses; what special 
forces are contained in the varieties of vegetable aliment, and 
which of these is adapted more than all others to produce 
8ome special quality of animal tissue, are problems which at 
best have been but partially solved. Their full solution and 
distinct announcement would save in our State untold sums, 
which now annually run to waste. The great laws of economy in 
feeding are left mainly to the unaided observations of the farmer 
himself. The consequence is, that while the fitness of certain 
ingredients to single results remain the same, the practice 
in feeding is various and capricious. Of the large number of 
different crops annually raised in this State for animal con- 
sumption, some are best fitted to be worked into the fib? e that 
gives capacity for fleetness, some into the weight that pro- 
duces strength, some concentrate most largely the elements 
that are promotive of gi'owth, others the elements that are pro- 
ductive of the constituents of fat. Muscle and bone, butter 
and cheese, and pork and beef all lie in scattered atoms in the 
soil. They are gathered first by the subtle processes of growth 
into vegetable forms, and then changed by assimulation into 
animal products, and the prime question is, how to conduct 



41 

the whole series of combinations so that the dead mould shall 
be transformed into the marketable commodit}" with the 
smallest waste of material. This problem must be worked out 
in all its details by chemical analysis carefully conducted, and 
by experiment. And while the former can be best carried on 
in the laboratories of our agricultural schools, the latter falls 
fairly within the field of work which this Society has projDosed 
to itself to aid in accomphshing. 

But further, if, as I have said, this Association properly ex- 
tends its fostering care over all the values that spring from the 
soil, then every plant which is useful to man for food or fabric, 
is the object of a special sohcitude. The whole catalogue of 
esculent roots, the host of cereals adapted to this latitude, and 
the countless variety of excellent fruits, v/hether new or old, 
come withm the ckcle of its sympathies, and it puts forth its 
best endeavors to bring each of these to the fullest perfection of 
form and size. But the objects of this Society are not limited 
to the production simply of the finest examijles, but they ex- 
tend to all the processes by which the raw material is worked 
up into staples for immediate use. Our published lists of pre- 
miums offered to comj)etitors at the State Fair, includes not 
only the purest grain, the lucious grajDes and apples, the noble 
cows and fleecy sheep, but wines and •vinegar; butter, cheese 
and bread; cloths and flannels as well: thus showing that we 
lend support to the miller, and baker, and weaver, and iu short, 
to every earnest worker in the useful arts, as fully and freely as 
to the farmer himself, xigain, if it behooves this Association to 
expend its energies in improving the staple productions of 
the soil, whether in the crude or the ultimate state, then it fol- 
lows that the improvement of all the implements and machines 
by which the soil is prepared, the seed sown, the crop har- 
vested, cleaned, garnered, transported or ground, must also be 
added to the hst of its avowed odjects; and it is manifestly a 
part of its appropriate work to stimulate and quicken the in- 
ventive genius which has, of late, made such marvelous achieve- 
ments in this department. 



42 

Accordingly, there is many a successful inventor, who carries 
the diploma awarded by the agricultural committee, as a valued 
evidence of the genuineness of his invention; and it is a cause 
of congratulation to-night, that, in the improvements of the 
methods by Avhich machinery is successfully applied to the sal- 
vation of the human muscle, Michigan is no whit behind her 
sister States. But further, if the perfection of its products be 
our prime purpose, it follows again that all the fertUizers by 
which the soil is enriched and rendered prolific, may properly 
receive a share of attention. How mineral and animal manures 
should be composted, prepared, preserved and applied, are 
questions of vital moment to farm economy. Every growth of 
whatever crop is a constant drain requiring a replenishment as 
constant. Continue to drain while you fail to replenish, and 
permanent exhaustion will surely follow. Some of the older 
States, with their thousands of acres impoverished by a system 
of cropping that returns nothing to the soil, rendered as barren 
and irreclaimable as a desert, are striking examples of a great 
public calamity which Michigan will bo wise to shun. If suc- 
cessful agriculture lies at the basis of national prosperity, if the 
wants of an increasing population must be met by a produc- 
tiveness increasing in similar ratio, then the fertility of every 
cultivated farm should be augmented year by year, imtil the 
soil reaches the topmost limit of its producing capacity; a re- 
sult that never can be reached so long as nature's restoratives 
are given over to be dissipated by the winds, the sunshine, and 
the rains. It surely cani^ot be foreign to our mission to give 
our moiety of influence in settling a system of judicious econ- 
omy on so vital a point, and thus aiding to avert a public mis- 
fortune — a misfortune which, if general and wide-spread, is the 
sure precursor of national ruin. Again, it is manifestly in har- 
mony with our organization, the constituted guardian of the 
soil, to gather, in a place convenient for public inspection, all 
those products whose form and permanence render them avail- 
able for preservation; to collect, classify, and exhibit all those 
geological specimens which indicate the mineral constituents 



of the soil in the locality where they are found, and to arrange 
and publish the resources of this State, as an agricultural re- 
gion, especially the richness of oui* uncultivated lands, and thus 
to arrest and divert hither the tide of emigration that annually 
sweeps by us to people the less favored regions of the far west. 

It is ours to give the warm welcome to the new settler by 
whose energies the waving grain will replace the leveled forest. 
It is ours to cheer the farmer in every department of his vari- 
ous toil, to stimulate his efforts after genuine results, to fui-nish 
models of excellence which he may strive to realize, to reward 
his successes and pubhsh thorn to the world, to offer him better 
tools and better processes for bungling ones, to teach him how 
best to destroy those natural enemies which infest his grains 
and fruits, to give him easy access to all superior methods which 
science or experience has furnished, to ai'ouse his ambition and 
enlarge his knowledge of agriculture, whether by objects ad- 
dressed to the eye or by essays addressed to the judgment. 
All these are, as seems to me, included in the comprehensive 
sphere which our organization was destined to fill; for less than 
this would not satisfy the aspirations or realize the ideal of an 
association, originated for the advancement of a great branch 
of industry, on which so much of human welfare depends. All 
these objects are consistent with each other; they are all at- 
tainable and their attainment is indispensable to any real pro- 
gTess in the science and practice of agriculture: and gentle- 
men of the committee, we shall compass these benign and 
worthy objects, not only by looking to the farmer's wants in 
the present, but by providing for his future needs; not only by 
offering stimulants to the production of single specimens of 
excellence, but by diflt'using, as far as possible, that knowledge 
and skni which shall supersede the necessity of temporary stim- . 
ulants, and make anything else than the permanent production 
of excellent results impossible; not only by aiding to improve 
the quality of the work, but by aiming to elevate the condition 
of the worker. 

And aU these objects are to be sought, not as ultimate ends- 



44 

filone; not tliat the finest farms, the fleetest liorses, and most 
symmetrical short-horns may be produced and exhibited, (thou.gh 
these are worthy results;) not that this, that, or the other ex- 
hibitor should take our premiums or diplomas, but as all in- 
cluding and tending to secure the one nobler end, namely: that 
the million within ihe borders of our State may be warmed and 
sheltered, clothed and fod, with the smallest wear and tear of 
human muscle and human Hfe. I do not aver that we have 
not seemingly had, at times, a nebulous perception of the rela- 
tive importance of some of the objects I have named, and a 
clear perception of the value of the rest. I do not deny that 
we have sometimes, seemingly, ignored and neglected some 
branches not at present so pressing, to concentrate our ener- 
gies upon others more immediately urgent. "What I affirm is, 
that all these jparts form the one great whole, which constitutes 
the enterprise we propose to forward. Most assuredly we are 
not a sporting club for the trial of speed in horses; we are not 
an association for the breeding and improvement of dcvous and 
durhams; we are not an association of grape growers; we are 
not a pomological or horticultural society; not a combination 
for the raising of sorghum and the production of syrup ; we 
are all of these together, and much more; we are not coordi- 
nate with any one of them; their purposes are ftpecific. ours gen- 
eric; we overlap and comprehend them all. 

Having glanced thus briefly at the ends ^^hi(•h it is the pro- 
vince and purpose of this Association to compass, let lis next 
give earnest heed to the means which we either now employ 
or may properly employ hereafter. These means are substan- 
tially three in number: First in the order of time, and fore- 
most for immediate effect, is the State Fair, at which thousands 
•of our citizens annually assemble, to study the finest samples 
of all that the State produces, and hundreds of exhibitors 
gather to compete for the premiums we ofTer for the best speci- 
mens of all the animal, vegetable and artistic products. Both 
the visitors and the exhibitors are greatly profited, and an im- 
petus to agriculture is given and felt tkroughout the State. 



45 

The second means is the annual public meeting in winter, at 
which papers and addresses, by prominent agiicultiTrists, on im- 
proved processes and methods in farming are read and afterwards 
published. To these may be added other printed matter, such 
as occasional prize essays on topics requiring special elucida- 
tion, and pamphlets of instruction, similar to the one issued by 
the committee last year on points of excellence in cattle. The 
first of these meetings, held at Ypsilanti last season, was a 
most gratifying success. 

The third means is the projiosed Agricultural Museum, 
wherein are to be collected all those more perfect specimens- 
and illustrations in agriculture, which can be successfully clas- 
sified, arranged, and held on exhibition throughout the year. 

Undoubtedly these three institutions do not include all the 
means which the Society might profitably employ. But they 
l^resent, in themselves, a kind of completeness which is pleas- 
ant to contemplate. They constitute a series of agencies, each 
of which aids the efficiency and remedies the defects of the 
others. They are counterparts each to the others, and form, 
together, a symmetrical and harmonious system; a system that 
would produce not only immediate, but permanent and lasting 
results; a system that would furnish to the masses not only 
wholesome recreation and amusement, but food for instruction 
and reflection, as well, that would appeal not simply to a just 
j)ride and a j^roper emulation, but to intellect and judgment 
also; a system that would incite the farmer not merely to the 
production of excellence in special things, for a sjjecial occa- 
sion, but to the habit of attaining to excellence in all things 
and for aU occasions; a system, in short, that reaches and stim- 
ulates the farmer at once, and then offers to him and his child- 
ren the means of a constant and perpetual progress. 

But these are general statements which need a more particu- 
lar analysis and amphfication. Let us, then, scrutinize closely 
the merits and demerits of these three means, and determine 
precisely which of the ends proposed, it is calculated to subserve. 
A fau' and a museum have some characteristics in common, 



46 

■whicli it is well to notice. Each cousists of a collection of inter- 
esting objects, selected and displayed as tbo most perfect spec- 
imens of tlie classes wliicli tbey represent and illustrate. 

A fair is a temporary museum — a museum a permanent fair. 
A fair is composed of a wider variety of attractive articles, sim- 
ultaneously gathered, whose biilk and value in many instances, 
make their transportation expensive, and their retention im- 
possible; and hence they are on exhibition for a limited period. 
The one is an assemblage of samples, more miscellaneous and 
less perfectly classified; the other a collection of specimens 
completely classified on a scientific basis. Both present their 
objects to the eye and seek to gratify a laudable curiosity; the 
one, in order to amuse, inform, and excite competition; the 
other, to instruct and educate. It v/ill be seen, therefore, that 
while both accomplish results that are kindred in ^lany 
respects, the one is more favorable to salutary recreation, the 
other to serious study. 

The State Fair, bing the effective agency for quick results, 
has very loroperly, here as elsewhere, been first in the order of 
time. It has been held annually for sixteen years. From first 
to last, it has been conducted by self-sacrificing men, who 
counted their services and time as fully requited by its success 
and salutary influence xipon the agriculture of the State, li 
has been under a succession of Presidents, whose administra- 
tion of its affairs has evinced rare earnestness and executive 
skUl. It has attracted a yearly gathering of from ten to 
twenty thousand ^dsitors, and paid out $40,000 in premiums 
alone. It has given a marked and rapid impulse to the devel- 
opment of the resources of the State in the shape of more 
remunerative crops, labor-saving implements, and valuable 
stock. Under its transforming influence, the grafted fruits have 
everywhere sujoplanted the crabbed offerings of the natural 
tree; the scythe, the cradle, and the flail have well nigh disap- 
peared, and sinews of iron and steel do the drudgery once 
done by the human arm; the horse has gained a better breed- 
ing, and greater vigor and endurance ; the sheep, once thinly 



47 

and coarsely clad, lias exchanged its wortliless toggery for a 
fleece unrivaled in beauty, weight and fineness; and the native 
cow, with her pinched -vitaLs and gothic ribs, is fast giving 
place to the sy in metrical Devon and the magnificent Shorthorn. 

Such are the results which the State Fair has accomplished; 
but great and valuable as they ajee, they do not include all the 
Bnds which we have enumerated as properly within the prov- 
ince of this Association. The State Fair aims to excite emu- 
lation, and appeals to pride and profit, motives Avhich are 
easily reached, but which do not comprise all the incentives to 
human effort, nor the only available ones. The very rapidity 
with which it attains its objects, suggests a doubt as to their 
stability and permanence. Its success depends on excitement, 
and excitements do not survive the discontmiiance of their 
causes. Should any unforseen obstacle intermit the annual 
holding of the State Fair, it may be questioned, in the absence 
of other incitements, whether very many would not relapse 
into the indifference and torpor which are the besetting sins of 
the farmer's life. 

The State Fair stirs up ambition and excites immediate inter- 
est, but needs, as seems to me, other helps to perpetuate that 
interest, by making il more discriminating and intelligent. It 
presents samples of the finest results in farming, and thus fur- 
nishes the visiter an ideal which he may strive to realize, but 
from its very nature, it can give him no instruction as to the 
processes and methods by which these results have been pro- 
duced; consequently, in his endeavors to attain similar excel- 
lence, he must gi-ope in the darkness of experiment, unless be 
gains the requisite information as to the quo tnodo, from other 
sources. I may admire a blooded horse, groomed and capari- 
soned for the annual exhibition, and my admiration may induce 
me, at high cost, to barter ray sorry nag for the noble gelding; 
but my blooded horse will soon subside into a nag that shall 
be sorrier still, if I am ignorant of the proper manner in which 
such an animal should be fed and treated. Admiration for a 
beautiful product is a good thing, but an attempt at its pro- 



48 

duction or possession -without a commensurate knowledge, is a 
hazardous experiment. This unavoidable defect in the State 
Fair, needs a compensation somewhere, and it is true that it 
may be derived from several sources, the periodicals or the 
Agricultural College, for instance, but we hope it may be found 
also, partly at least, in the line iipoii line and precept upon 
precept, given in the pubhshed proceedings of our winter 
session. 

Again, an argicultural fair, though it stirs up zeal and stim- 
ulates effort, fails inevitably to give jij?v'c;'.st; notions eY en of the 
objects which it presents to the eye. Precise notions can be 
gained only by deliberate and protracted examination of single 
objects to the exclusion of all others. Amid the din of the 
crov/d and the vast variety of forms that attract the eye, it is 
impossible even for the most disciplined attention, to concen- 
trate on a single one long enough to enable the memory to repro- 
duce it faithfully. It is true that, in rare instances, an amateur 
may scrutinize minutely some one article, which has for him a 
higher interest than all the others together, but such amateurs 
hold a very slight comparison in number, with the multitude 
that are to be benefitted by the exhibition. No doubt the ad- 
vantages from our yearly exhibition are many and great, but 
they do not consist in the acquisition of clear ideas. We carry 
from our annual fair a (piiclcened zeal, gratified curiosity, a 
sturdier coiirage, renewed friendships, more active sympathies, 
and a deepened impression that the farmer's life is the truest 
life that man can live, but we carry also a confusion of intel- 
lectual images not generally available as data for judgment or 
reasoning. The time is too «hort, the throng too restless, the 
objects too numerous and distracting for such a result. And 
this second defect, which is inseparable from a State fair, will, 
we believe, find a remedy more or less complete, in the agricul- 
tural museum, where the specimens are arranged for minute 
inspection, where the company are more constant but fewer in 
number, and where the time devoted to examination is lim- 
ited only by the inclination and convenience of the visitor. 



49 

Another influence -which operates as a drawback to the maay 
genuine results reached through ^he State Fair, is the tendency 
to encourage an abnormal rather than a normal development. 
Of all the qualities hi specimens displayed at pubhc exhibitions, 
that of size is the most striking and impressive. Only the most 
cultivated eye is aljle to resist the effect of huge and unusual 
proportions. The viewing committee, magnetized by this influ- 
ence, not unfrequently pronounce that of all the articles placed 
in competition, the biggest is the best. The consequence is, an 
anxious production of a rank overgrowth which is utterly at 
variance with that compactness and fineness of fibre and deli- 
cacy of flavor which, combined with the proper dimensions, 
constitute genuine excellence. Grossness of growth and coarse- 
ness of texture are inseparable concomitants. Of two potatoes, 
the one whose size is astonishing, has attained its surface 
development at the cost of a cavity within, and sogginess to 
boot, while the other, with the smooth and clean skin, the 
round and moderate growth, is dry, mealy, and delicious. Of 
the same varieties of fruits and roots, it not rarely happens 
that the larger are for admiration, the smaller foy, eating. 

From a similar influence in the stock department, an effort 
is constantly made to improve the outside api^earance at the 
expense of a proj)er internal condition. As the annual occa- 
sion approaches, even milch cows and working cattle are often 
made to lay on a quantity of superfluous fat, which fits them 
for the show, but unfits them for their peculiar use?. Some 
specimens of beeves displaye'd at our stalls had attained so 
unique a condition as to induce the suspicion — and the hope 
indeed — that there is one quahty of beef for the market and 
another for the Fair. A single example from a neighboring 
State, was a striking instance of the point in question. Its 
muscles were enveloped in huge layers of fat, gaihering here 
and there into wen-like excrescences, unhealthy enough to 
spoil the digestion of an Esquimaux. Yet this monstrosity of 
greece took the premium over another whose tumors were less 
protuberant. I confess to an impression which is in full sym- 



50 

pathy with one who complains " Tiiat the societies for agricni- 
tural cncoui'agement persist in giviug premiiHas to (so-oaJled^ 
fat cattle, mere monsters, not of good -vviiolcsonio muscular 
fibre, well mottled, but mountains ol' adipose substance, which 
no christian can eat, and which are only disjioscd of profitably 
"by serving ; k an advertisement to some yeulurcsomo landlord 
from v/hose i;ible the reeking fat goes to the soap-pot." 

The truth is, that in every organized .substance, whether 
vegetable or animal, it is the harmonious development of all its 
natui'al qualities that constitutes its perfection, and as sizo is 
one of these, it follows that it can be enlarged only in a jusi 
ratio to the improvement of all the rest. 

I am glad to say that this tendency to overrate the value of 
mere bulk, marked as it is in particular cases, is, after all, excep- 
tional, and so may be looked upon as a departure from the gen- 
eral practice in awarding piemiums at the State Fair. Such 
awards arc, beyond question, generally just, and the few that 
are not so under the influence of the above mcmtioned preju- 
dice, arc, at any rate, in harmony with public opinion. ThB 
tendency I have referred to, will disappear before the progress 
of a more discriminating taste and judgment, counteracted, as 
it will be, by the influence of the Museum, whose collections, 
to some extent identical in kind with those of the Fair, v/ill be 
more slowly, and therefore more deliberately and carefuUy 
made. 

Another lack in the compL toness of the many positive bene- 
fits conferred by the State Fair, lies in the methods of prepar- 
ing particular products for exhibition, a defect which is closely 
related to the one we have just considered. It may be fairly 
doubted whether, in some cases, the special policy pursued in 
fitting commodities for the Fair, will serve as an example which 
may be profitably folio vv^ed in general practice on the farrft^ 
Tiie question fully stated is, whether the thing exhibited fairly 
represents the general results reached by the exhibitor, in tho 
prolaatioi of the entire Q]yi3 to whijh it belongs, or whsihoi: 
it has been evolved from stimulating processes outside of his 



51 N 

ordinary practice, and tao expeDslve for general adopbion. In 
the former case, the article, if excellent, is 'jf great value for 
ilie end to bo gained bj the exhibition; in the latter case, what- 
ever be its qualities, it is worthless, except for the purpose of 
empty show. Oi" course any product, however remarkabio in 
form or beauty; is valueless as a sample, which has been, and 
ciust be produced at an out'ay which its marketable valu * can 
Jiover refund. Thus a Canadian showed, with great compla- 
cency, at his county fair, a monster carrot, uud unwittingly 
killed the in teres b it excited, by revealing the significant fact« 
that it had sprung fi'om a chance seed on the sunny side of hia 
bai^nyard, and had been hoed and watered assiduously through- 
Out the season; while his staple crop was less than the ordinary 
yield. My pleasure in dwelling upon the rounded form and 
magnificent size of a yearling heifer, was once greatly disturbed, 
on my being told by the owner, in a burst of confidence, that 
tip to the very time of the exhibition, it had daily exhausted the 
tiddera of a brace of cows, and that it was the most expeditious 
milker on the farm. I like magnificent yearlings, but I have an 
internal habitual respect for butter and cheese as well. The 
question is, can I raise such carrots and calves, by a similar in- 
vestment of care and cash, consistently v* ith any known prin- 
ciple of agricultural economy. Nothing is clearer than that we 
<jan never exhibit collections of purely representative objectSj 
flo long as the farmer raises, by different processes, one kind ol 
product to show, and another to sell. 

I have ventured thus freely to glance at these unavoidable 
defects for the purpose of showing that, however complete its 
fiuocess in some directions, the Fair cannot be expected to Bub- 
eervo all the ends, which it is the duty and destiny of this So- 
ciety to reach, and therefore, that it needs compensating helps, 
euch as siu r bodies in the older States have adopted, to 
cnaldo Oixi to accomplish fully their allotted work. 

s liave now a word to offer in respect to the kind of help to 
1x5 derived from tlie judicious management of our wiriter ses. 
eions, and then I will endeavor, with youj.' indulgence, to ex- 



52 

amine, wiili some minuteness, the nature of an agricultui'al 
museum, and to sliow what portion of our enterprise it will be 
calculated to further. In the first place, the exer ises of our 
winter session, if wisely conducted, constitute one of the agen- 
cies which will increase the efficiency and remedy the defects of 
the Fair. So far as they go, they will tend to satisfy the aspi- 
rations for knowledge which the Fair excites, and furnish the 
information which it makes necessary, and yet withholds. The 
winter session is designed to teach precisely what the Fair 
does not. The latter presents to the eye the bare results of 
agricultural labor; the former should present to the judgment 
the processes by which these results have been obtained. It 
will elucidate and offer, for general adoption, those modes of 
procedure on the farm which will produce the paying article, 
and expose, for general rejection, those that will not, whatever 
be their attractions in other respects. By showing that kind 
of economic labor which will secure results that combine botb 
the elem.ents of beauty and profit, it will tend to reduce to a 
negative quantity, a species of idle amusemeut known as fancy 
farming. 

Thus will our winter meeting be made to counteract some of 
those agricultural abuses and abnormal developments of pro- 
duct, which the State Fair, as we have shown, not only cannot 
correct but is even liable, unwittingly, to ecourage. But in order 
to make it subserve these desh-able ends, it is essential to ob- 
serve, in its management, the following conditions: 

1. That of the numerous topics needing discussion, those 
should be selected which embrace methods practically the most, 
important, and at the same time the least known. 

2. That these methods shall have been tested by actual 
practice, and found to be suitable to the soil, climate and other 
conditions of farming in this State. 

3. That men be invited to present papers on these methods, 
■who have proved their value, by successful trial, and can givo 
the emphatic utterances of actual experience. 

4. That the questions selected for discussion, involve a statisti- 



53 

oil statement of the processes by \ h'cli ti:e more striking results 
presented at the State Fair, li,i\e been produced. 

In this -^ay we sball make the winter session and the Fair 
effective auxilliaries, eacli indispensable to the other, the one 
completing, in a measure, what the other successfully begins. 
In this way, too, we shall find the winter session, in itself, an 
unfailing source of valuable information to the farmers of Mich- 
igan. The marked success of the initiatory meeting, last sea- 
son, was an augury most encouraging for the future. 

Of course, I am aware thati, in this branch of our enterprise, 
we have many efficient allies. Among them may be reckoned 
the agricultural periodicals, the State Board of Agriculture, 
and the State Agricultm-al College under their charge. The 
value of most of the periodicals, being issued at the east, is 
lessened by the fact that many of their articles are of doubtful 
application to the varying conditions of the west. The Secre- 
tary of the Board of Agriculture, a gentleman widely known 
for his attainments in all matters relating to practical farming, 
is constantly engaged in labors kindred to our own, and the 
Agricultural College has inaugurated a series of published 
experiments, which give great promise of usefulness. These 
energetic co-workers will stimulate us to still greater endeav-, 
ors; for it maybe said, without irreverence, that asinthe moral, 
60 in the agricultural field, the harvest truly is great, but the 
laborers are few. 

Let us now concentrate our attention upon the nature and 
purpose of the third instrumentality to be employed by this 
Society, namely, the Agricultural Museum. This project, 
though properly last in the order of time, is by no means last 
in the order of importance. For, though slower in action than 
the other two, it 'will be far more enduring in effect; for its 
prominent purpose is to impart a precise and definite knowl- 
edge of the products and resources of this State in agriculture 
and its kindred arts, and to give facilities for the acquisition of 
ench knowledge, not only to the present, but to coming 
generations as well. To what more noble purpose can this 



64 

Society devofce a portion of its euergies ar.d suiplns fmids, than 
to the furtherance of a project which BLall furnish for every 
earnest observer, a meana of gaining Ihoso accurate notions 
V hich he at the basis of all genuine progress? How can we 
better help tlie farmer than by giving to him and his children 
access to the means of a most familiar acquaintance -with the 
material on %Yiiich he works? Hov/ can we better aid in 
developing the agricultural resources of the State, than by 
gathering an exhaustive collection of samples, which, when 
dassiiied and arranged, shall represent these resources with 
infallible accuracy as to their kind, quality and value ? At a 
loss of 'ime and mone}', I may travel to Saginaw to inspect the 
salt it produce:?, or to Plymouth to test the quality of marl 
found on lands adjacent, or to any orchard to explore for 
examples of the ravages v. hieh the borer has made, or to thia^ 
that, or the other farmer, to sccui'o some one of the varieties 
of choicer seeds; but if all these things wt ro collected and 
arranged in a single iocalit}', convenient for access and study, 
then, certainly, I and a multitude of others would bo apt to 
avail ourselves of such an opportunity to accom])lish the same 
object, at the saving of so much time, trouble and expense. 
But how much greater the advantages which such a collection 
affords, if each of its specimens is so classified and labeled aa 
to indicate with precision its origin and quahties. If, as our 
Constitution declares, it be our object to promote the progress 
of agricvdture and its kindred arts, where in the widest scheme 
for accomplishing this, both for the present and the f utui'e, can 
we find means more fitting and effective ? 

But a conviction of the benefits which would accrue to agri- 
culture from one or more museums, situated at accessible 
poiiits in the State, needs no prolonged statement of reasons 
BO. obvious. Even in the absence of all experience of its opera- 
tion and effect', there is a strong presumption in its favor. 
Many of the similar societies in the older States have found it 
an invaluable adjunct to their other moans of advancing the 
interests of agricnltui-e. The Board of Ae-riculture of Massa- 



55 

clinsetts, for example, a body organized for a purpose similar 
to our own, lias its agricultural cabinet, in which, among other 
matters of high scientific interest, is a complete collection of 
insects injurious to vegetation; and by legislative authority, its 
Secretary, Charles L. Flint, has edited and published, at small 
cost to the reader, a beautiful edition of Harris's work, which 
gives full desci'iption of these insects, together with their 
habits, metamorphoses, mode of propagation, and how thej 
aa'e most easily exterminated. • 

The Nov/ Yorlc Agricultural Society has always regarded it» 
museum as one of its most prominent instruments of success, 
in the furtherance of its objects. Col. Johnson, the Secretary, 
writes me that it is held in the highest estimation. 

A brief exlract from a notice of its contents, by tiio New 
York Tribune, four years ago, will serve to show something of 
the character of this interesting collection: 

" The Museum room is about G7 feet long by 37 wide, and has 
two galleries, supported by light iron columus. The room is 
lighted by side windows as v/ell as by two enormous sky-lights 
n the roof, and is as well adapted to the purposes for which it 
^afi built as any we have ever seen. The stairways are of iron, 
and a neat iron railing runs around each gallery. Against the 
walls are glass cases, those on the main floor being ap;. ropriated 
to miscellaneous articles, such as costumes and fabriis of for- 
eign nations, antiquities and rehcs of this country, and curiosi- 
ties in the way of sports of nature, old spinniug wheels, looms, 
minerals, and other matters of interest. The cases on the 
second floor are filled with a most complete set of specimens of 
the grains and seeds of oui- own and various foreign countries, 
which in itself is a study of a most interesting nature. The 
seeds of America coming first in order, we see hei-e scores of 
Yai'ietiea of Indian corn, many of wheat, rye, oats, and other 
aercals; and a very complete ass rtmentof all the common and 
uncommon garden vegetable?. England, Hungary, Bavaria, 
Austria, Franco jjroper, Afi'ican Ojlony of Al^e: a, are all rep- 
resented by nimierous sxaecimcns. Tho resouices of almost 



56 

GTerr Em-opcan and some Asiatic countries, arc more or less 
complete 'y illustrated in these cases, and it is a curious study 
for the farmer to notice how closely grains from widely separa- 
ted countries resemble each other. 

"The cases along one entire side of the third floor are appro- 
priated to Dr. Asa Fitch's entomological collections, which al- 
ready are superior to any others in the world in many respects. 
Time will be when the zealous student of Natural History will 
be able to study the nature and habits of our noxious and other 
insects more satisfactorily on this third floor of the State So- 
coiety's Miiseum than he could anywhere else, and time will 
also be when our farmers will awake to the fact that one of 
their greatest benefactors has lived out his quiet life, and per- 
haps laid him down to die in an obscure rural district, with no 
monument to keep green his memory, excejit these splendid 
collections which he freely gave years of his life to gather from 
our fields and forests. 

" The Fitch collections, when arranged this fall, will be divided 
so that the various insects in all their stages — egg, larva, pupa 
and moth---will be placed in drawers beneath tlie cases, while 
the more roomy space of the latter wiU be devoted to the dis- 
play of specimens which illustrate the ravages of the insects. 
There are now but few specimens set ujd in the case-, but quite 
enough to show the ultimate value of the collection. Thus we 
have a piece of basswood, the substance of which has been 
mined out by white ants. Alongside it is a glass-covered box 
which contains specimens of our dread foe, the wheat midge, 
its larva, a male fly, and kernels of wheat shrunken and ruined. 
Another of these little boxes shows us the Hessian fly, its larva, 
its flax-seed-like eggs, and a wheat straw broken open to show 
the " flax seeds " vrithin. Hero we have a twig of mountain- 
ash covered with scale insects; here, on a twig of poplar, the 
eggs of the " executioner tree bug " strung along in two un- 
broken parallel and contiguous lines, like a string of sandal- 
wood beads or a damtily-braided strand of maiden's hair; hei'e 
we have a limb of black oak cut off by the oak-pruner; here a 



57 

piece of red cedar — wliicli every one has belieTed insect proof — 
utterly destroyed by the stump wasp; while, like thy mysteri- 
ious foot prints in the red sand-stone and chalk, on the bit of 
pine bark are to be seen the finger-like tracks of the "pine 
bark-beetle,'"' starting from one central pit or hole, and spread- 
ing — always four at one side and two at the other— like the 
fingers* of a hand. In a bottle of spirits, here we have the 
larva of the " hickory moth," the largest known, v.'hich is so 
frightfully ugly — what with its long horns, and bamboo-like 
joints — that we cannot blame the plantation darkies for calling 
it the "horned devil." Here is a hickory ax-helve, sound as a 
But when first made, but since then completely riddled at one 
end by some hickory beetle, probably (saj'S the label) by the 
Apate baHillaris — which of course will be perfectly intelligible to 
every one of our readers. In this case, near the stairway, we 
see a great section of applewood — five feet seven in circumfer- 
ence, one foot ten in diameter — which has been literally honey- 
combed by the borer. Not to occupy space with further enu- 
meration, we will merely say that by this time next year, farmers 
passing through Albany wdll be able to examine, in this collec- 
tion, several thousand specimens of insects and their ravages. 
" On the ground floor are arranged numerous American farm 
implements which have from time to time been donated to the 
Society. The foreign visitor can here see many of our best 
variety of reapers and mowers, drills, harrows, cultivators, fan- 
mills, and a large collection of plows not only of the latest im- 
proved patterns, but, what is especially valuable for comparison, 
those clumsy contrivances of wood with which our grandfathers 
j)ricd ajDart their stubborn furrows. Among the best of the 
modern plows is the " center-draft," of Prouty & Mears, which 
was honored at the London World's Fair with a first premium. 
If ever an award was honestly earned from reluctant judges, 
we esteem that this one was; and however public opinion may 
be divided in the Henan-Sayers case, it must be fairly conceded 
that our English friends did the fair thing for American plows 
— ^when they v/ere forced to do it. At the trial in question. 



58 

Colonel Joimson heard the En^-^Iish laborers discussing the 
incrita of t]je Yanlceo plows in uncomplimentary terms. Tlioy 
had decided that the flimsy things -would break, or at any rate 
that they would not run in. This latter seemed the opnion of 
the plowman who was ordered to guide the Prouty & Mears 
plow, for lie ])ersistently bore upon the hasidle with his wholo 
weiglit in ihe benevolent intention of forcing the nose to enter 
to the requisite depth until he was ordered by the Colonel to 
let it do Hh work as intended. The man turned two furrowat 
around his " larid/' and then admitted in a loud " aside " to 
some of his anxious fiiends, 'that ere dom'd thing would 'a held 
itself if oi'd a let it.' 

"Not one of iho least valutiblo things in the Society's cases, 
is a pair of long-handled ' thistle tongs,' for eradicating thistlea 
from pastures more effectually, and certainly pleasantly, than 
if ihe unpi'otcctcd ha,nd wore used for the purpose, 

" A huge assort'nent of agricultural and horticultural tools 
from India, all of which have been in actual use, have been ro- 
ccntly presented to the Society, by L. H. Morgan, of Rochester. 
Thus the farm tools of the time of Jacob and Laban, are 
placed along.-ide those in common use among our New York 
farmers to-day; and while in the main we are thus led to see 
the march of improvement which through the long centmie» 
has been made, we cannot fail to be surprised at finding in thifl 
lot of rude too's, some contrivances for which patents have been 
gi'anted at Washington, wdthin a fev/ yeai's. For instance, 
thei-e is a pump made with a series of buckets on an endles» 
rope, which, to all intents, i the same as the chain pump which 
v/e think such a reraaikably clever Yankee invention; and ia 
two of the grain and seed-drills, the seed is dropped through 
tubes which pass through a shoe, the furrow is cleared for 
it, the seed is covered, and compactly embedded exac'ly as 
our seed is now planted and c ;vered by a score of ' modero 
improvements' which are to bo found at any of our largo 
Fairs. 

" The Hindoo cultivator is, to our notioc, a more philosophi- 



59 

cal tool in principle, than oiir modern harrow; for, wliereas tliG 
latter compresses tho soil over ^\llicb its wedge-siiape teeth 
travel, tlio barbarian's cultivator, while it loosens, lifts the 
earth, and thus leaves it in as jjorous a state as previously. 
There is a great plow in this lot of tools, meant for a team of 
twelve bullocks, which will plow, or rather root, to a depth of 
gome eight inches, and which embraces that principle of the 
double arch, which Professor Mapes counts as the great merit 
of his ' soil lifter.' True, the tola of this Hindoo plow is of 
wood, and not less than five feet in length, and only its nose ia 
shod with iron, but from nose to beam, and from center to sides 
of the sole, th're is a definite although gradual arch, which is 
well calculated to lift the soil and throw it outward from the 
center. 

" We should be very loth to conclude our imperiect sketch, 
■without some complimentary rotice of a beautiful suite ol 
specimens of dried grasses and flowers, made by afar.iser's wifCj 
in Rensselaer county. By some peculiar processes of desicca- 
tion, she preserves all the colors of the flowers in their original 
brilliancy, as wjII as retaining their shape. A large bouquet, 
and many single cards of flowers, which had been in the cases 
for a twelvemonth, were apparently as fresh in color as on the 
day when they were picked. Another lady amateur botanist 
contributes a collection of 154 varieties of weeds, all of them 
Collected, pressed, and cori'eitly named, by herself. And so, 
from case to case, and gallery to gallery, we might wander, and 
find a host of things of more or less interest to our readers, but 
we trust we have said enough to convmce our farmers that a 
day spent in the Meseum, at Albany, connot fail to prove, in a 
high degree, profitable." 

Of coui'sc, museum collections will vary with the resources 
and necessities of the particular States in which they are made. 
The fundamental purpose of our own should be, as seems to 
ine, to make a full exhibit of all the productions of Michigan 
which are limited to a certain bulk, and to iuchide complete 
gets of specimens illu&ti'atiDg all the values that lie in and be- 



60 

neatb. her soil. In tlie first place, it ouglit to embrace es- 
liaiistive samples of those geological strata v<hich indicate the 
qualities and mineral constituents of the soil in the region 
where they are found. It ought also to contain complete ex- 
amples of the minerals and ores which have already proved 
such a prolific source of wealth to the State. It should com- 
prise, moreover, illustrations of commodities for household 
consumption, of subterraneous origin, in different localities, 
such as the coals, and various qualities of salt manufactured so 
successfully at Saginaw; and also select specimens of all the 
mineral fertilizers, as limestone, marl, plaster and the like, of 
whose abundance we have already so large a promise. 

Of all these, many may be easily gathered from the jilaces 
that supply them, and the rest may be obtained, it is hoped, by 
an arrangement with the gentlemen who have had in hand the 
scientific survey of the State, which was begun several years 
ago, and which it is hard to believe the Legislature will aban- 
don before it has been completed. 

The niuseuDi should be likewise a depository for the more 
excellent of the machines and farm implements, which have 
been tried and approved by actual practice, together with a 
collection of similar articles, from the most bungling to the 
best, whose purpose shall be to display to the eye the progress 
of art in this particular. In addition to these, aU the latest 
inventions, which are useful in prospect but as yet untried, 
will naturally find i:)lace in this division. Implements, of what- 
ever sort, too large for the room assigned them, could be repre- 
sented by smaller models pi'epared for the purpose. This de- 
partment could be easily filled by voluntary contributions from 
various manufacturers and by inducing the exhibitors at the 
State Fair to give still greater publicity to the premium arti- 
cles, by a further exhibition at the museum, indefinitely con- 
tinued. A 

Another portion of the museum should consist of sample 
varieties of wood, indigenous to Michigan. These samples 
might be cut into the likeness of volumes, of uniform size, 



61 

Beatly finislietl, labeled on the back, and put up in library style- 
Such a library I once found in the interesting collection of the 
Agricultural Academy at Hohenheim, in the kingdom of Wurt- 
emberg. It presented, arranged upon shelves, a great number 
of wooden tomes, whose titles indicated the different species of 
valuable timber in which the forests of Germany abound. 
Each tome, when examined, Avas found to open in the centre, 
reveahng a cavity within, which contained, glued to its sides, 
the preserved leaf, flower and fruit of the tree of whose wood 
the tome was a sample, together with a short essa}', in script, 
on its qualities, cultivation and uses. These ligneous books, 
whose leaves disjplayed no printed sentence, furnished, from 
their very covers, a deal of information on a topic of no little 
importance. A collection of this kind is the more desirable, 
because the time is coming, nay, has already come, when the 
wealth of oirr forests should no longer be carelessly squandered; 
when a system of economy should be urged, in the preservation 
and judicious use of the valuable fuel and lumber, now doomed, 
in many instances, to thoughtless and thriftless destiaiction. 

A'.ain, the Museum must be made a depot for seeds, which 
shall be perfectly ripe, j^ure and healthy. No part of the en- 
terprize can be of greater moment to good husbandry than 
this. Throughout the wide domain of organized nature, it is 
an immutable law, that tmder favorable conditio as, like produ- 
ces like, even in the minutest particulars. Principles better 
known and applied in the breeding of domestic animstls, proba- 
bly operate with equal precision, in the reproduction of varie- 
ties in the v< getable kingdom. Hence, the saving and plant- 
ing of seeds which are plump and perfect, are of vital conse- 
quence to the coming crop. " The development of a plant/^ 
eays Leibig, " depends upon its first radication, and the choice 
of proper seeds is, therefore, of the highest importance to the 
future plant. Poor and sickly seeds will produce stunted 
plants, which again, will yield seeds bearing, in a great meas- 
ure, the same character." 

K this be true, he who, by new combinations, produces an 



62 

improved vai'ieiy, is a public benefactor; and Iio who scoures 
its wide distribution, earns a similar title. This Sociotv may 
properly participate in so benevolent a work, by opening, it 
may be, an office in its museum, for gatheriiig and furnistiing 
widely to others, reliable or improved seeds for the grain crops, 
or grasses, or. esculent roots. 

A feature of not inferior interest would be found in carefuUj 
arranged specimens of wools from the Socks of our successful 
wool-growers, specimens which should demonstrate the effect 
of breeding uj)on the fineness and compactness of the fleece, 
and no less attractive to the stock raisers in general, would b© 
the numerous engravings donated by the owners of sheep, catr 
tie or horses, which have become known to fame by combining, 
in a snpei-ior degree, all the excellent qualities which spring 
from purity of pedigree. 

Another department likely to excite the enthusiasm of vis- 
itors, would consist of artificial mode's of all the finer varieties 
of Michigan apples and pears, prepared by an inexpensive pro- 
cess lately invented, and so accurately finished and painted as 
to be undistinguishable by the eye from the natural fruitu 
Bpecimens for models- n-ight be obtained, to some extent, from 
the best samples shown at the State Fair, and by gratuitous 
contributions from other sources. No part of the collection 
would combine so strikingly the beautiful and the useful as 
this. 

But the limited space allotted to a lecture warns me to for- 
bear a complete enumeration of the classes of thiugs which 
would properly find a place in an agricultural cabinet. I wiU 
only add that our museum ought to embrc^.co prepared and 
preserved specimens of all the smaller animals, which in this 
latitude are harmful or hclj^ful to the farmer. There is an 
or-gent necessity for a general onslaught to be made upon 
those innumerable posts that, season after season, make such 
alarming havoc with our crops of fruit and grain. Thcro is a 
necessity as urgent that all the quadrnpcds and birds v.-hich 
are naturally destructive to these noxious feeders, should bo 



63 

«aretallj mnliiplied. With cvevy retuniing summer corncs the 
resurrection ox the swarms of borers, cnrciiiios, ^Yeevils, worms, 
and the like, which cojiibine, i:i countless hosts, to rob the 
fjirmer of the earnings of his toil. Particular families of these 
have of late generated with such maivelous rapidity as to 
beget a well-grounded fear that their numbers will result^ in 
the utter destruction of the crops on which they feed. In 
fiome quarters this fear is alreudj realized. The locust, once 
valued for its enduring wood and greatfnl shade, lias yielded 
to millions of pcrforatiois, which have well nigh reduced its 
limbs and trunk to dust. The palm tree, which once offered 
its sure fnuts, round, ripe and melting, now casts them annu- 
ally to the ground, blighted and worthless. In all manner of 
▼egetable delicacies the worm is demanding to be served first. 
The tirar" may come when no man taste an apple whose skin, 
anflecked and unstrung, shall forbid the apprehension that the 
first incission of the teeth will reveal a slimy occujiant. The 
time has already come wRen, to indulge iu the luxury of green 
peas, is to devour a host of unsavory grubs, which are the prog- 
eny of a prolific weevil. These various destroyers, threatening 
such wide spread evils, demand the v»'isest and most vigorous 
measures for their extermination. Such measures can be 
founded only on an accurate knowledge of their form, habits, 
metamorphoses and modes of propagation, and more can bo 
learned from a glance at these in their difierent states than 
from an hour's appHcation to the unaided descriptions of a 
book. 

But if the museum should present his enemies to the far- 
mer's eye, it should likewise present his friends, the insectivo- 
rous birds — should present them in such guise, that he should 
be made to appreciate the value of their friendship — should 
perceive, indeed, that he who wantonly shoots a single wood- 
pecker, gives life to thousands of injurious insects that propa- 
g .to in nore than geometrical ratio. 

I have thus, gentlemen of the Committee, endeavored to 
gather within the comi^ass of an hour, the prominent character- 



64 

istics of the three agencies AvLicbwc may fitly use, in the f urther- 
ence of our allotted enterprise. I attemptctl first, to sketch the 
nature of this euter})rise, to show hoAv broad and benign it is, and 
how worthy to call forth all the energies of this Association. I 
have taken a rapid survcjy of the merits and defects of the State 
Fair, showing that the former are great and striking, but not 
lasting in their eilcet, and that the latter need to be remedied by 
counteracting influences outside of itself. I have shown that one 
of iliese is the winter meeting, and that its success depends on 
cond tions that are easily realized. I have shown that the other 
is the Agricultural Museum; that in itself, it is an object deserv- 
ing our heartiest interest; that it is a scheme appropriate to 
the known purposes of this Society; that it is esential to the 
development of our agi'icultural resources; that its material 
may be found within the State; that it is no untried experi- 
ment, having been tested and approved by societies older than 
ours, and that in itself, it will be the sure instrument of great 
and lasting good. 

These views embody my honest convictions set forth after 
much reflection, and you are to pi-onouiice whether they be 
genuine or no. 

I will only add in hasty conclusion, that the proposal for a 
museum was made by one under whose administi-ation the So- 
ciety reached its highest prosperity; one who has left a reputa- 
tion for great business integrity and tact; one who had broad 
views and quick symj^athies with evo'y effort to promote the 
public good, and if this project, which he cherished to the last, 
be unwise or hastj', it will stand in solitary contrast with all the 
other pm-poses of his active and useful life. 



ERR ATA. 



The following address having been printed without permitting the au- 
thor to see the proofs, numerous typographical errors have occurred. 



Page 


Line 


from 


for 


read 


65 


6 & 10 


bottom, 


" drives " 


" dunes." 


71 


12 


top 


•'waving" 


" waning." 


74 


10 


;; 


'• set " 


"sit." 




22 


.e 


" armaceous " 


" arenaceous." 


75 


5 & 


.( 


"tends" 


« trends." 




6 


bottom 


" forms " 


"for-ri." 


76 


14 


'.i 


"tends" 


" trends." 


77 


\?, 


top 


" typographical " 


"topographical." 


wC 


17 


bottom 


" shoals " 


" shales." 


u 


11 


(( 


*' carniferous" 


" corniferous." 


80 


17 


top Insert 


a period after " few." 


82 


11 




" robbing " 


" robbery." 


83 


'.» 


'.i 


"Plains" 


" Plaines." 


a 


12 


" Insert a 


period after " exi 


St.'" 


84 


5 


" Insert a 


period after " san 


ds." 


c; 


11 


bottom 


"inhabitable" 


" uninhabitable."' 




10 




'•■ sifted ■' 


"shifted." 


86 


6 


top 


"even" 


"ever." 


81) 


5 




" arenana " 


" arenaria.'' 


'• 


r, 


l)Ottoin 


" Peninsula " 
" Demark " 


" Peninsular." 
" Denmark." 



90 



10 top llemove capital from " Continent." 



L E O T U H E 

ONTRH 



SOILS AND SUBSOILS OF MICHIGAN, 

BY 

I»rof. A. WI3VCHE1L.L, 

Of tlie State University, Ann. Arbor, Mioli. 



ANALYSIS. 

I". The Connection of Human Condition and Progreas wiUi Uio SeJ]^ 
Dlastrations to show how national and individual character M9 
determined by the soiL 

IL The General Geology of Soils, 

1. The basis of all soils and subsoils is disintegrated rocks. 

2. Soils have existed at other periods of the world's history. 

3. Drift agencies. 

HI. The Different Varieties ot Soils in Michigan. 

1. Sketch of the geology of the Lower Peninsula, with an accouoiief 
the soils derived from the various formations. 

2. Physical characters of these soils. 

3. Agricultural and sanitary properties of the three principal Yanle- 
tiea of soils. 

4. Peaty soils — their origin and propertiea. 

5. Upland prairies— their origin and characteriatics. 

6. Sand drives— their origin and effects. 

IT. Influence of Human Agencies upon the SoU. 

1. The destruction of the forests. 

2. The drainage of swamps and lakes. 

3. The creation and Dxatioti of drives. 

\' The Excellence of the Soils of Michigan. 

1. What they are capable of producing. 

2. Rcllex influence upon the population of the State. 

3. Necessity of making greater elTorta to develop our resourcca fUkI 
dLssemiuate informatioD. 



m 

Geni'lemen: Man is tlie foster-child of the soil. From the- 
day when he frees himself from maternal dependence, he draws 
all his sustenance from mother earth. She yields him the 
grain ^Yhich forms his bread, and sujoports the cattle which 
furnish him his meat. He learns to regard the soil as the 
bounteous almoner of Divine beneficence, and feels himself 
gi'owing into intimate relationship and unity with it. He ap- 
propriates it and calls it his own. He reaches his arms around 
broad acres, and they nurse him, and he fattens in proportion 
to the nourishment they afford. Seeing that his life is perpet- 
uated by the exuberant productiveness of the soil, no wonder 
that nations have imagined their existence to originate in it — 
auiocJithonei^, as the people of Attica thought themselves — or 
have fabled a panopHed host, to spring up under the influence 
of cultivation — as Cadmus, when about to found the city of 
Thebes, sowed the serpent's teeth, and raised a crop of fuU- 
armed warriors, ready for his service. " 

111 a literal sense national character is the growth of the 
soil. The ancient Egyptians were an agricultural people be- 
cause they dwelt upon a soil made affluent by the sediments of 
the Nile. The Athenians were driven from their native country 
by their sterile limestone hills, to seek the products of Egypt, 
and Italy, and Sicily, and tlnxs became a commercial people. 
The scanty soil and rock-encumbe>'ed slopes of the Alps make 
herdsmen of the hardy Swiss; while vineyards and gardens 
glow with the ruddy fatness which bursts from the genial soils 
of the Rhenish valley. New Eugland hums with the whirl of 
a million busy spindles, while the Great West rolls forth the 
food for New England manufacturers, from her exhaustless 
^anaries of corn and wheat. Massachusetts spins and weaver 
ijie wool to which Michigan has given existence. The East 
elaborates the material — the "West creates the material, and 
feeds both East and West. 

Not only is the character of peoples an outgrowth of their 
eoil, but the character and condition of individuals also. Travel 
across our country and mark the phases of human conditioa 



67 

which greet the eye. The plain but healthy mountaineer con- 
tents himself in his rock-sheltered hut, from whence he and his 
eons go forth in the morning to tend his herds of sheep and 
cattle. At the foot of these mountain abodes lies the smUing^ 
plain, with its winding streams and sun-ht meadows, and daz- 
zling village walls. The fields are fat with grain ; the orchards 
are redolent with fruit; and the flush and well-fed farmer waits 
npon the steps to welcome you to a place at his well-spread 
board. But the plain breaks into easy swelling ridges; the soil 
becomes thin and sandy; the tenacious subsoil retains the water 
in the shallow depressions of the surface, and only occasional 
clearings in the piney forest, reveal the rude log cabin, upon the 
steps of which, in place of the lusty farmer, sits the son-y mas- 
tiff, contemplating the pigs and geese which his master's indi- 
gence and indolence have failed to fence out of his family 
quarters. Again we penetrate a region diversified with wooded, 
fertile plains and rolling hills, whose heads are crowned with 
the beech and maple and oak, always uttering such welcome 
tidings of the goodness of the soil in which they have fastened 
their roots. Sturdy and resolute men have claimed these acres, 
and attacked these ancient forests. The resistence of the 
timber to then* encroachments, makes them willing to limit 
tiieir grasp to a few acres each, and these arc tilled with intel- 
ligent and persevering industry. A tasteful dwelhng crowns 
each rising knoU, and hberal barns and well-filled cribs pro- 
cdaim that plenty dwells with the master of the premises. The 
rolling hills subside; the forest vanishes; we stand upon the 
prairie sea. As far as the eye can reach, -no mountain, no hUl 
intercepts the horizon ; a limitless meadow stretches around us, 
•with its green undulations succeeding each other in the dim and 
blue perspective, like the heaving storm-sweU of the mightj 
ocean. Here is no forest to oppose the greed of the unreflect- 
ing farmer. The excellence of the soil tempts his cupidity be- 
yond the bounds of propriety, and the tillage due to a hundred 
acres he wastes upon a thousand. Hi 3 corn-fields are weedy 
and dank; his wheat maintains an unequal conflict with the ab- 



68 

original vegetation. But muuificent nature refuses to be shamed 
by the failure which ne;i,ligeut fanning deserves, and always re- 
turns a praiseworthy crop. Yet, where uatui-e bestows what 
man has been too indolent or too imprudent to deserve, she 
still inflicts retaliation, by allowing hun to smother his energies, 
to waste his stern and virtuous manhood, and forfeit the sweets 
of enjoying the award of conscious desert. 

Thus, man everywhere assumes the character moulded for him 
by the nature of the soU on which he hves. Rocks and hills 
create good v.ater power, but indifferent crops. They turn the 
wheel of the artizan, wliile they wash away the resource of the 
farmer. The valley and the plain are the abode of agriculture, 
because there nature has mixed her richest soils, and conserved 
them for the uses of man. If the plain, albeit, be neglected bj 
nature, sterility reigns imchallenged, and the squalid, drivel- 
ing, nerveless populations who content themselves with such 
inhospitable acres, excite the pity of then.' fellows, while they 
mir ror the indigence of their fields. 

If such is the connection between man and the soil on which 
he dwells, we are all concerned in the inquiries, whence comes 
the son ? What are the soils on which our individuals and 
public characters are growing ? To what are they adapted ? 
Are they as good as could be desired ? How shall we avail 
omselves of all their capabihties ? 

As to the origin of soils and subsoils — this is purely a geo- 
logical problem; and geology has solved it neatly and conclu- 
sively. Ninety-five per cent, of all productive soils is mineral 
matter. This has had a geological history; its annals are as 
ancient as those of the granite hills. You may take a grain of 
the sand which glistens in your soil and contemplate it. Here 
is a little worn translucent particle of quartz. You may crush 
it under your foot, or cast it upon the etirth, forever beyond tho 
hope of rediscovery. This httle particle of quartz existed as 
you see it before Caesar conquered (he Gauls — before the stone 
imp ements were iashioiied which we find among the most an- 
cient of the " Kjoekkenmcedding " of Denmark or Sweden — 



69 

before Moses stood upon Mt. Sinai, or Adam fled from the eyo 
of offended jnstiee. It has perhaps witnessed half of tho rev- 
olutions which the material globe has undergone in the pro- 
gress of its development It has lain buried in the midst of 
cubic yards of solid rock — it has been the sport of tho ocean's 
surges, and danced to and fro for agea upon a shore that 
has ceased to exist — it has bleached upon the land, bathed by 
the tears of Heaven, and smihng when again the Heavens 
smiled upon it. Its fellows, by whose side it lay for number- 
less years are far away to the north, glued together in a flinty 
mountain mass. These innumerable grains of sand with which 
it is keeping company are all strangers. They have met to- 
gether Only a few thousand yeai-s ago, and each is pinmg for 
its famihar bedfellows. 

There was a time when every atom of this shifting, mobile 
Band was an element of the soHd rock, The mighty agCRcien 
•which have moulded the world have struck them in fragments 
fi*om theii' parent masses, ground them between the mill-stones 
of the ages, washed and assorted them in the sea, and strewn 
them over continents for man to dwell upon. 

That which is now the sru-face of the earth has not always 
been its surface. Continents and islands have expanded them- 
selves to the wannth of the stm, which became afterwards the 
bed of the sea. Soils which were clothed wit's the vege- 
tation of a former age, have been sunken where a thousand 
feet of ocean shme have accumulated upon them, which, in turn, 
has been changed into a thousand feet of solid rock. Our vast 
coal measures are but fossil "swamp lands," — the vegetable 
debris of a buried age. 

But no son has ever existed upon the surface of ovir planet 
at all comparable in utihty with that which enwraps the conti- 
nents during the passing age of man. As the era was draw- 
ing nigh when the consummation of the Creator's works was 
to take place, some striking and unprecedented phenomena 
occurred. For the use and enjoyment of the human race — at 
once the culmination of organic perfection and the recipient 



70 

of super-organic intelligence — a soil vras io be prepared that 
sliould possess aU conceivable adaptations and perfections. 
The continent was iinished, and seemed only to await the 
advent of the superior being that was to possess it, and subdue 
the brute natures that had roamed upon it at will. But frosi 
was destined yet to exercise a reign of inexorable rigor, and 
the sea was permitted once more to career over mountains and 
plains that had seemed rescued from his sway. The elevations 
of the polar regions occasioned cold which clothed all the 
southward slopes with fields of ice. As in the glaciers of the 
Alps and Greenland, a gradual movement of these icy masses 
resulted, as we believe, from the diurnal and annual vaiiationa 
of temperature. The movement was necessarily southward. 
The mighty load sHd over hill and vale, and plowed the under- 
lying rocks, and heaped up masses of rubbish composed of 
pebbles and sand and finer materials, which we now find 
strewn from the Arctic Sea to the Ohio River. This mighty 
power astonishes us, both with the magnitude of the rockj 
masses whicij it has moved, and the unexpected distances 
which they have traveled. Boulders weighing many tons have 
teen borne for hundreds of miles, A rounded n)ass of jaspery 
conglomerate on the University grounds at Ann Arbor, has 
traveled from the norlhern share of Lake Huron, though 
weighing nearly seven tons. The mines of Lake Superior 
have exported their native copper into southern Wisconsin and 
Michigan, and even to the middle of Ohio and Illinois. The 
immense mass of the rubbish which we call "drift," gives 
evidence, in nearly every case, that it has bean transported 
toward the south. Its thickness sometimes amounts to three 
hundred feet or more. 

The reign of ice being past, a geological spring-time suc- 
ceeded. The mountain glacier yielded to the soft influence of 
the sun, and a thousand rills issued from the bosom of the ice^ 
to wend their way, in ever confluent and increasing streams to 
the great Mexican gulf, which reached its long arm northward 
to the mouth of the Ohio, to receive the limpid gifts. Concur- 



71 

rent with tliese piienomcna, the land began to sink. Mile after 
m i le disappeared in the insatiate mav/ of the exultant sea till 
America was no more, and superior intelligences moui-ned that 
the great and beneficent work which thej had watched for so 
many ages, was ongulphed in ruin at the moment when it 
eeemed to have reached its completion. Omni -cicnce felt no 
8uch apprehension. Slowly the continent loso from its last 
sea-burial. As the waters receded down the mountain slopes, 
they lingered lovingly and dallied with the pebbles on the ever- 
receding beach. The action of the waves, as they traveled 
over the land, assorted the drift materials, and in every caso 
the lighter particles, last dropped by the v^aving strength of 
the surges, remained upon the surface, and concealed tho 
coarser fragments from sight. 

Thus was constituted the basis of our soils. No other soils 
in the long history of the world have been founded upon a 
preparation so vast and so comjjlete. The great abundance of 
superficial materials has caused the rocks to lie for the most 
part several feet beneath the surface. The depth of this sub- 
soil secures at least two important advantages. First, the 
droughts of summer cannot di'y out the soil, far capillary at- 
traction continually replenishes it from below. Secondly, wo 
have an inexhaustible store of the saline constituents of soils, 
which are perpetually drawn to the surface with the moisture 
which rises in obedience to capillary action, and are deposited 
at the surface, when that moisture escapes in vapoi'. And then 
we should not overlook the benefits of that assorting action of 
the waves which has left the finer constituents at the surface. 
The slow recession of the sea might have caused a feeling of 
impatience in the mind of a finite being, as its submergence 
would have overwhelmed it in disappointment. But the very 
dehberateness of the operation, is what secured the execution 
of the omniscient purpose. 

The face of the earth was naked and barren. Before the 
; reign of ice it had been clothed with verdure like that which 
now adorns it under the same climatic conditions. I venture 



72 

the assertion that the germs of that preglacial vegetation were 
stored away in the raaBscs of drift Avhich overwhelmed it; and 
that they retained their Titality itnimpa^red through all that 
geological winter; and that when the regenerated continent 
rose dripping from its last ablutions, those germs yielded to 
the sweet invitations of summer warmth, and came forth in the 
form of herb and shrub and tree, as in the b' ginning. They 
grew and flowered, and went to decay, and their successive 
crops, mingling their remains with the surface sands, consti- 
tuted the soils which, in tliia age, yield a supply for all the 
natural wants of man. 

"What we have said pertains to the history of soils in general 
Our own soils are formed from the remains of rocks which im- 
mediately underlie, or form the northern wall of our Peninsula 
— ^ihe bariier which interposes between us and our Canadian 
friends. Those constituents derived from the northern bar- 
riers have been uniformly distributed over the Peninsula; and 
may be said to constitute the " constant quantity" in our soila 
Those constituents derived from the underlying rocks, or those 
in the immediate neighborhood, introduce the vai-iations, and 
may be said to form the "variable quantities" in our soils. 

The constant quantity is silicoargillaceous. It is derived 
from those ancient rocks in which silica and alumina form the 
main constituents, with limited quantities of lime, alkalies, iron 
and manganese. These substances— silica and alumina — are 
practically insoluble in cold water, and never disappear under 
immersion in it. By far the greatest proportion of a'l these is 
silica. The finest particles of this substance are the ever 
present companions of the particles of alumina — insomuch that 
what is usually denominated pure clay, j^ more than four-fifths 
silica, in a minute state of subdivision The fine impalpa- 
ble portions of the constant quantity have been to a great ex- 
tent ported out from the arenaceous portions, and form beds 
of clay — so called — sometimes occupying the surface, but gen- 
eraUy deeply seated in the drift materials. The arenaceous 
portions of the constant quantity fortunately overstrew ^the 



entire f^urface, and prevent our soils from acquiring that adhe- 
siveuess so detrimental in highly argillaceous soils. These 
sandy particles have been derived from quartzites, granites, 
eyenites and gneissoid rocks, still remaining in place in the 
regions ijorth and south of Lake Superior, and north of Lake 
Huron. 

The first thing worthy of notice in the soils of the "Agricultural 
Peninsula of Miehigan is the universal distribution of the " drift '" 
materials. We find very few naked patches of rock — few areas 
with so thin a covering over the rock as to be in danger of dry- 
ing out dui'ing the rainless periods of the summer months. 
The States of Louisiana and Florida, alone, present so few 
outcrops of the rocky basis of the land. Should it have hap- 
pened that the geological structure concealed beneath this cloak 
of drift presented any considerable comphcation, like tliat of 
the mineral Peninsula, it would have been impossible to map it 
out. As it is, none of the area is lost to agriculture; nearly 
every acre of the land can be made a cultivated field. 

The three leading varieties of soils in Michigan, as elsewhere, 
axe arenaceous or sandy, argillaceous or clayey, and calcareous 
or limey. These varieties are created by the changing character 
of the soil constituents which have a local origin. In the vi- 
cinity of limestone the soil assumes a calcareous quality, from 
the destruction of the limestone rock. In the vicinity of sand- 
stone strata the soil becomes arenaceous, and in regions un- 
derlaid by shales or slates, it assumes an argillaceous character. 

These principles being established, it is obvious that when 
we have learned the character of the rocks underlying a given 
region, we have a clue to the nature of the overlying soil; and 
consequently of its timber and agricultural adaptations. The dis- 
tribution of the leading varieties of soil in the southern half of 
the Peninsula, is weU determined from observation, and is found 
to corroborate the statement just made. The northern half of 
the Peninsula is imperfectly known from direct observation. 
The geology of the coast region is tolerably weU ascertained, 

10 



T4 

but that of tlie interior is mostly a matter ol: inference. Yefc 
where strata Lave been so little disturbed, as tliose of the Lower 
Peninsula of Michigan, stratigrajjhical inferences may be re- 
ceived with considerable confidence. I venture the assertion, 
therefore, that I am able to set in my study and map out the 
geographical limits of tiie leading varietits of soils in the north- 
ern half of our Peninsxila with greater precision than any of 
our citizens have been able to acquire by direct observation. 

The rocky substratum of the Peninsula, is extreinely simple. 
The highest layers of rock belong to the " coal measures," and 
occupy the central portion. The rocks belonging to the coal 
measures, are of a mixed character, and consequently pro- 
duce a soil of little uniformity. Shales alternate with sand- 
stones and limited beds of limestone. A considerable mass of 
sandstone, which I have styled the "Woodville sandstone," 
overlies the whole, and where it has not been denuded or 
washed away, it gives predomiiiauce to an armaceous quality 
of soil. In districts where this sandstone is destroyed, the 
mass of underlying shale, develops a plastic, argillaceous soil. 
This, in some instances, is dark colored, and in others, quite 
light — varying, of course, with the color of the neighboring 
shales. The soil and subsoil often contain streaks and frag- 
ments of coaly, matter which, in all ordinary cases, imply an 
outcrop, or a2:>proximate outcrop, of coal at no great distance 
toward the north. The slight undulations of our strata bring 
to the surface, at different points, beds of rock occupying dif- 
ferent positions in the series, even without any variation in 
topographical elevation. The coal measui-e soils are, therefore, 
very irregularly distributed. As a group of soils, it may be re- 
marked that they possess a limited supply of lime; Avhile the 
abundance of pyrites in the shales, introduces considerable sul- 
phate of iron or copperas; and the presence of kidney iron ore 
in the shales, and of iron-oxyd in the sandstones, introduces a 
rusty stain in many patches of the soil. 

Underneath the mass of coal measures is abed of sandstone, 
^alled the Parma standstone, whose edges are exposed in a belt 



75 ..■...„„ 

aronnd the borders of the coal area. It is the " conglomerato" 
of Ohio and PeBiisylvania, and the "millstone gi'it" of the 
EngHsh geologists. It is the reservoii' of the brine which sup- 
plies the wells of Bay City and %dcinity. It is well exposed iu 
the township of Parma, iu Jackson county, and thence tends 
northwest through parts of Eaton, Barry, Ionia and Kent 
counties; and by inference, we trace it through Newaygo, 
Osceola, Koscommon and Ogemaw counties, to the north side 
of Saginaw bay. Fiom Sandstone township, it tends in the 
opposite direction, east and northeast, through Washtenaw, 
Genesee and Tuscola counties, to the south side of Saginaw 
bay. This rock, as a whole, is the whitest and cleanest sand- 
stone in the Lower Peninsula, and gives character to a gray, 
arenaceous soil, entirely destitute of adhesive properties, except 
BO far as they have been introduced by the argillaceous element 
of the northern drift. 

Immediately underlying the Parma sandstone, we find the 
carboniferous limestone, which may be traced from Newaygo 
county, through Grand Eapids and Bellevue, to the middle of 
Jackson county; and thence bending northeast and north, 
makes its appearance in Huron county, and forms the islands iu 
Saginaw bay. Of its northern curve, we know little, except 
that it outcrops in the vicinity of Higgins and Houghton lakes, 
in Koscommon county. This sheet of limestone is not more 
than seventy feet in thickness, and does not play a consj)icuoua 
part in the formation of our soils, except in the immediate vi- 
cinity of its outcrops. Moreover, the lower portion of the for- 
mation — especially on the eastern side of the State — is highly 
arenaceous, and the entire mass abounds in nodules and layers 
of chert or flint. Its contributions to the sod are consequently 
of a calcareo-sdicious character, and forms no well-marked 
limits to the arenaceous soils of the Parma sandstone. 

This limestone is superimposed upon the argillaceous strata 
of the Michigan salt group — a formation which becomes 
greatly attenuated in the southern part of the State, but 
develops a thickness of IGO to 200 feet around its northern 



76 

curve. It is strongly marked in the western part of Kent 
county, and thence to Muskegon and Oceana counties. Arch- 
ing around through Crawford, it strikes the eastern shore of 
Tawas Bay, where the geological survey disclosed the exist- 
ence of an immense deposit of gypsum, rivaling that in the 
same formation at Grand Rapids. In the southern portion of 
the State the tenuity of the formation gives it an unimportant 
place among the sources of our soils; but toward the north it 
develops a plastic subsoil, and a surface somewhat rugged 
fTom the unequal v.'earing of the pyritous and magnesian 
bands of limestone with which tlie shales are intersected. 
Besides the immense beds of gypsum v/hieh this formation 
oontiiins, many of the shales themselves are gypsiferous; and 
it is consequently to be presumed that the soils derived from 
he formation are not wanting in the calcareous element. 

Beneath this repose sandstones which give origin to the belt 
of arenaceous and pine-covered soils stretching from the An 
Sauble, of Lake Huron, through Crawford and Kalkasca 
counties, to the Manistee. On the south side of Saginaw Bay 
they constitute the cliffs at Point aux Barques, and underlie 
the ridge of land extending thence through Huron, Sanilac, 
Oakland and Washtenaw, to Hillsdale county, whence the out- 
crop tends through Calhoun and Allegan to Grand Haven. 
These are the Napoleon and Mai-shall sandstones — the reser- 
voir of the brine which supplies the wells at East Saginaw and 
vicinity. These sandstones are generally much stained with 
oxyd of iron, though locally of a pale buff color — as at the 
typical locality, Napoleon, in Jackson county. Th^y impress a 
positive character upon the soils of the region which they 
■underlie. The warm and porous soils of the northern part of 
Lenawee county are derived fi-om these strata — as well as 
those of Oakland and Macomb on the one hand, and those of 
Calhoun, Ksdamazoo, Allegan and Ottawa on the other. The 
Bandy and somewhat sterile belt of country reputed to exLst in 
the region regarded as overlying the northern trend of these 
rocks has undoubtedly been misrepresented. The characters 



discovered in the immediate vicinitj of the lake shores have 
erroneously been imagined to stretch across the State. Every 
geological indication assigns to the country in que--tion a soil 
similar to that of Oakland and Hillsdale counties. The excep- 
tions are only of limited extent. 

An immense deposit of argillaceous strata — called the Huron 
group — rests still beneath the Marshall sandstone, embracing 
the well known black slate of Thunder Bay and Kettle Point. 
Its northern trend is fi'om Thunder Bay, through Otsego, An- 
trim and Leelanaw counties. On the south it affords the char- 
actenstic clayey soils of AUegan, Yan Buren, Kalamazoo and 
Branch, reaching even beyond the limits of the State, and 
curving north again through Lenawee and Wayne. The typo- 
graphy of this belt of country is level and moderately low. 
The 8ubs(jil is always a bluish or blackish, or sometimes a 
whitish plastic clay — often with disseminated pebbles — and 
the soil, though generally with intermingled sand, is for the 
most part tenacious, late to dry out, and quick to feel the effecta 
of dry weather. The abundance of kidney iron ore in the 
ehoals fill the soil with ferruginous matter, which after solu- 
tion, enters into new arrangements in the form of bog ore, shot 
ore and ochre. This is the only strictly argillaceous belt of the 
State. 

Lastly, we reach the limestone strata, which afford the onlj 
well marked calacareous soils of the Peninsula. The carnif- 
€a:ous limestone occupies Monroe county, and passing thence 
bj two courses into Ohio and Canada, it reapjjears on the north 
dde of Thunder bay, and underlies all the region thence to 
Mackinac. It forms the bulk of Mackinac, Bois Blanc and 
Bound islands, as well as the Manitou islands of Lake Michi- 
gan. It is immediately underlaid by the Onondaga and Niag- 
ara limestones, the first of which belongs to the lowest salt 
foi-mation of tho State — and which supplies the well at Port 
Austin, in Huron county. This series of limestencs presents a 
mass of considerable thickness, and gives a marked character 
to the soil of all the northern region of the Peninsula, and al 



78 

the islands to the cast and west of Mackinac, in the two lakes. 
The soil of this northern limestone region is similar to that of 
Ohio and Indiana, in the neighborhood of the line separating 
the two States, and thronghoiit the region stretching east to 
Sandusky and Colnmbtis. It is a dark, strong soil, and pro- 
duces excellent crops, as I have been able to observe upon 
Drummond's and Bois Blanc islands, as Avell as upon the main 
land. 

Of the physical characters of the three varieties of soils to 
which I have thus far alluded, httle needs to be said on this 
occasion. The subject is treated in every text book of agricu]- 
ture. The arenaceoiis soil warms most rapidly under the solar 
influence, and retains its heat the longest. The argillaceous soil 
is lowest in caloric susceptibilities. On the other liand, the last 
is most retentive of moisture, and the arenaceous the least so. 
At the same time the arenaceous soil suffers less from drought, 
because, being so porous, it draws water — so to speak — from 
the deeper portions of the subsoil. The arenaceous and calca- 
reous soils are easiest to work, but they have the disadvantage 
of being most easily washed away. Indeed the leaching of 
arenaceous soils, where the surface is broken, renders it neces- 
sary to make more frequent application of restoratives than is 
necessary in either a calcareous or argillaceous soil. An are- 
naceous soil is best adapted to a climate subject to extreme 
vicissitudes of wet and dryness. It is also suited to northern 
latitudes, from its power of receiving and retaining caloric. I 
have seen corn averaging twelve inches in height in the north- 
em part of Lenawee county, on the same day that its mean 
height on the stiffer soils of Washtenaw was but six inches. 
For the same reason, crops are more forward at Bay City in 
July than they are in Wayne. 

Kot more is necessary to be said of the agricultural adapta- 
tions and capabilities of these three leading varieties of soiL 
It is Avell known that pine timber loves a siHcious soil, while the 
Bugar-maple is particularly fond of a calcareous one, and the 
beech and oak and hickory flourish upon both a calcareous and 



79 

an argillaceous one. Pine covered soils have a reputation for 
barrenness. This, to some extent, is merited; but in many 
eases, the stigma belongs to the stagnant water v/hich broods 
over an impervious sxibsoil. I have little doubt, as already in- 
timated, that the pine covered belt, stretching across the Lower 
Peninsula will, at some future day, present as strong attractions 
for the farmer as the best lands of Shiawassee or Ingham. 

In point of salubrity, it is supposed that arenaceous soils sur- 
pass the calcareous. It has been observed that epidemics rage 
most violently in districts supplied with strong limestone water. 
This subject was investigated at the time of the last visitation 
of cholera, and the suffering of Sandusky City is supposed to 
afford an illustration of the proposition. In many portions of 
Mississippi and Alabama, underlaid by cretaceous limestone, 
the water obtained from wells excavated in it, is unfit for domes- 
tic use, and cisterns are employed instead. Our old military 
post at St. Stephens, on the Tombigbee river, was abandoned 
in consequence of the insalubrity of the water afforded by the 
tertiary limestone of the locality. It seems reasonable, how- 
ever, to believe that the noxious qualities of certain limestone 
waters do not establish an invariable rule. At Huntsville, in 
Alabama, the city is supplied by a wonderful stream of pure 
water, gushing out from a bed of limestone. Chemically speaking, 
it cannot be doubted that streams percolating through arena- 
ceous strata, imbibe fewer impurities than any others. 

I have thus far spoken of soils which have their origin in the 
general geological structure of the Peninsula. There are others, 
of more limited distribution, which have had a more local origin. 
The first to be mentioned are the " swamp lands." These gen- 
erally possess a soil containing a surplus of vegetable matter in 
a state of partial decomposition. There are indeed swampy 
lands of an argillaceous character; and wet lands whose sur- 
face soil is even sandy, as is the case with some spruce and 
cedar covered soils already alluded to. Still, most of our 
swamp lands are depositories of vegetable acids, and I shall 
embrace in my accoimt of them, all our accumulations of peat 



80 

and muck. All tbese beds are intimately connected with the 
^ological history of oiir Peninsula. They are the connecting 
links between the j^resent and the past. 

I have ah'eady called to mind the grand events which accom- 
panied the last gi-eat revolution of the globe. We have seen, 
in imagination, the world emerging in a resurrection from its 
grave of waters. The waves have ghded down the sh -ulders 
and sides of the continent until she sat with her feet onlj 
bathing in the sea. But the surface of the land was covered 
with inequalities, and thousands of little depressions held their 
lakelets of water prisoners in their arms. So the land was at 
first dotted with thousands of Httle inland seas. But the 
clouds cast their burdens of fresh water upon land and sea, 
and every little pool, raised to the brink of its bounding barri- 
ers, poured its salt libations on the land, or sent them on their 
journeys, over a thousand laughing riUs and brooklets to the 
mother sea. All save a few, some residual pools left by the 
retreating ocean, were environed by walls so high that, with- 
all the reinforcements of the clouds, their waters could never 
scale them. They have never given out their brine — and to 
this day, their saltness remains. Indeed, since i)recipitation» 
in these later ages, has not kept pace with evaporation, thea-& 
inland cauldrons of brine have even become concentrated, and 
in some cases have precipitated their salt upon the bottom. 
These are our "salt lakes." 

But by far the greater portion of those residual seas found 
passage-way to the wide ocean. From year to year unnum- 
bered streams transported their saltness to the briny ocean, 
while the clouds return < d them only fresh waters. As the result 
of this unequal exchange, they lost their saltness, and became 
lakes. How, let me ask, did t'leir stock of fresh water fishes 
and molluscs come to take the place of the marine animals 
which must have been entrapped at the ej^och of tho receding 
ocean? And how did it happen that the same species should 
exist in a huddrcd difierent lakelets, separated by barriers im- 
passable to aquatic breathers? These nutlets are droj)ped for 
our mastication. 

y 



81 

We follow the history of our lakelets. For ages they re- 
ceived aud swallowed up the leaehings of the surrounding 
hills, and their highly calcareous waters jDrecipitated by de- 
grees a bed of fine calcareous mud. To this were added the 
dead shells of myriads of little molluscs that flourished upon 
the lime held by the waters. The bottom of each lakelet be- 
came a bed of marl But all around the margins of the lakelet 
the grasses and sedges were -vieing with each other in venturing 
into the water. The amphibious rushes put them both, to 
shame by raising their dirty heads straight through the slime 
of the lakelet's bottom. And there they stood — the rushes up 
to their knees in water, and the sedges and grasses scarcely 
over shoe. And every leaf and stem which fell upon the water 
or found its way to the shore, became entangled in the herb- 
age, and lay down and rotted there; and the rush, and the 
sedge and grass, when November came, bowed their heads in 
his presence, and wrapped themselves in the cerements that 
had gathered around them. And thus a soft bed of vegetable 
mould fringed the lakelet, and overlapped the deposit of marl 
which was growing beneath the water. From year to year as 
the water shallowed about the margins, encroaching vegetation 
crowded further and further toward the centre of the lakelet. 
I have not seen the beginning of this process; but at that pe- 
riod of time in which I have been permitted to begin my obser- 
vations, I find these changes in progress. The little herb stand- 
ing by the water's brink this year, dies and forms a deposit 
exactly like that which was formed the year before my eyes or 
any human eyes detected the character of these vicissitudes; 
and my logic compels me to reason from that which I have 
seen to that which no man has seen. And so, I may add, of 
the changes upon the ocean's shore, until the facts of the pass- 
ing world are made to illuminate the dark^and mysterious 
chambers of the fossil realm. ^ 

Eeasoning thus, we are forced to the conviction that many 
of the ancient lakelets have become completely filled. Others 
are only half filled — others have had the work completed even 
11 



82 

" within the memory of the oldest iiihabitaut." What theu re- 
sults on the fiUing of the lakelet '? A marsh — a bed of muck 
or peat underlaid by a deposit of marl. J3ut the progress is 
not at an end even when the lake is tilled. The siuTOunding 
hills still continue to afford lime-yielding water which saturates 
the muck aud dej^osits its lime; while vegetation still pays its 
annual tribute to the accumulating stores, till the solid material 
becomes sufticient to exclude the excess of water. Man then 
steps in, robs the soil of its marsh grass, and materially re- 
tards the process of desiccation, unless he compensates for the 
robbing by draining ofl" the stagnant Avater. 

Such is the origin of our swamps. Their constitution is such 
that m agricultural wealth they exceed the most favored up- 
lands. They are immense stores of vegetable nourishment for 
which the barren hills are groaning. It is evident, however, 
that for unmediate use such soils have httle value. They are 
wet and sour — two vices which can generally be reformed. For 
the first, drainage and sunhght are the remedy; for the second 
we must administer an antacid— a remedy most abundant in 
natui'e's pharmacopoeia; and in this instance brought literally 
to our hands in the shape of marl. A further beneficial treat- 
ment, as you all know, is to plow up the peaty soil, and leave 
it exposed to the action of frosts and atmospheric air. But 
this is not the occasion for the common places of agriculture. 

There is another variety of soil, intimately related to the 
peaty, both in its origin and its constitution. This is the up- 
land prairie. This soil is characterized also by its abundance 
of vegetable matter, existing however in a state of complete 
decomposition, and being alredy in the form of plant food. 
Prairie soils are the sediment of a greater lake which has 
spread its waters over roUing regions capable of draining 
themselves when the waters receded. Our Peninsula contains 
but little upland prairie, and that seems to be restricted to the 
south-western portion of the State. Our prairies are mere ap- 
pendages or outliers of the vast prairie region of Ilhnois. I 
have elsewhere discussed the origin of the praii'ies, and have, 



83 

in this address, already alluded to the agencies concerned in 
their formation. They are also connected with the last grand 
cataclysm of the globe. At the time when a thousand little 
lakes first began to nestle upon the undulating bosom of our 
fail' Peninsula, the great lakes— giants even at their birth — stood 
a hundred feet higher than we behold them. We have the 
proofs of this, but they belong to science. When Lake Mich- 
igan was twenty-seven feet higher than at present, its waters 
flowed over the tlividing ridge into the Des Plains and the Illi- 
nois. When it stood one hundred feet above its present level, 
it submerged the entire region now covered by the prairies — 
except perhaps an occasional knoU which stood a grand island 
in the midst of the waters. Lacustrine sediments accumulated 
then as now — dark, shmy and abounding in the remains of 
lacustrine shells. When, by the removal of barriers, or the 
elevation of the land, the waters of the lakes were drawn off 
to their present level, the lake bottom was left a naked, slimy 
waste, exposed to those solar and atmospheric influences, which 
develop the germs of vegetation wherever they exist, upon the 
gravelly knolls of the drift materials, the seeds stored up 
from the reign of ice sent forth herb and shrub and tree — if, 
indeed, these were not aU in possession of the soil while yet it 
was an island in the lake. But where the great lake had rested, 
the storehouse of seeds had become buried beneath a load of 
lacustrine slime; and the appearance of vegetation had to await 
the gradual introduction of seeds from without, through the 
slow agency of bu'ds and winds antl waters. But none of these 
agencies would transport the heavier seeds; and hence the 
grasses and other herbs first gained possession of the soil — and 
having gained it,*they held it, aided, perhaps by the Indian^ 
against the encroachments of the forest. And that is the 
reason why the praiiies are treeless. 

Still another condition of the terrestial surface, presents 
itself to the eye of the student of physical revolutions. I refer 
to the dune sands which border a considerable portion of the 
great lakes, especially the eastern shore of Lake iMichigan. 



84 

These sands are vpashed np by the waves, from the rocky out- 
crops in the bottom of the lake. The Marshall and Napoleon 
sandstones already alluded to, underlie some of the eastern 
portion of Lake Michigan, and of course, constitute an abun- 
dant source of shore sands; morever, the Huron group of 

shales extends under two-thirds the length of that lake; and, 
as all shales contain a larga per centage of sand, these also, give 

rise to an additional supply. Nor is this all: few Hmestones 

are so pui'e as to supply, on solution, an inconsiderable amount 

of siHca; and we find, accordingly, that upon those shores of 

Lakes Huron and Michigan, which are backed by a limestone 

region, the sands are nevertheless abundant. 

The action of storms throws these sands above the mean level 
of the water, and when the calm succeeds, the sand dries, 
and the prevailing winds impel the particles, by a kind of hop- 
ping motion, toward the interior. This is especially the case 
along the eastern shores of Lake Michigan and Saginaw Bay. 
It is ascertained by careful observation, that the wind is unable 
to raise the particles of sand over a barrier presenting a perpen- 
dicular face ; but where nothing jirevents, it will roll them up an 
inclined plane to an indefinite height. Consequently, the hills 
of dry sand, soon accumulated, grow higher and higher; or the 
materials of which they are composed, continually move for- 
ward under the impulse of the winds, until gardens, fences, 
farms and dwellings are buried beneath it, and a fertile re- 
gion changed to an inhabitable desert. These sands, while in 
a condition liable to be sifted by every wind, possess, of course, 
no agricultui-al value. There are, however, certain grasses and 
trees which will root in such a soil; and where land is scarce, 
they may be made to return some compensaticm for the trouble 
of planting and cultivation. I shall presently allude to this 
subject in another connection. 

Another point of view from which the soils of Michigan pre- 
sent themselves to our consideration, is the influence of human 
agencies vipon them. Man possesses the power to leave the 
impress of his energies upon the face of nature. To a certain 



85 

extent lie controls nature. Not only are the beasts of tlie wil- 
derness and the trees of the forest subject to his dominion, but 
inorganic matter is made to yield to his convenience or caprice 
His labors change the aspect of the globe; modify its climates; 
temper or aggravate its storms; ^and infect or disinfect the at- 
mosphere of wide regions. Old rivers are made to flow in new 
channels; and new rivers are led for hundreds of miles, up hill 
and down, in obedience to the behests of commerce. Lakes 
are drained, marshes are desiccated, the ocean is restrained in 
his mad encroachments upon the shore, and populous lands are 
transformed into voiceless wastes, by letting loose the pilgrim 
sands upon a leeward coast. 

The earliest and most pervading agency exerted by man in 
the modification of the soils of the Peninsula, is the destruction 
of the forests. Forests are the garments of the soil. They 
protect it equally from excessive cold and excessive heat. They 
shelter the snows from the drifting power of the wind, and are 
thus enabled to await the lapse of the rigorous season of winter, 
with their feet wrapj^ed in a fleecy blanket. Every autumn 
they pay back to the soil, with interest, all that the soil has ex- 
pended upon them. They fend off the burning rays of the 
summer sun, and restrain the fervor of the atmosphere. They 
shield the soil from evaporative influences, and maintain an 
equable degree of humidity. On sloping surfaces they bind 
together the soil, and resist the denudation of torrents. 

AU these conditions and results are changed when the forest 
is removed. The sweeping blast of winter strikes the earth 
with the fury of an invisible demon — drives off the natural 
covering of the soil, and exposes the stems and roots of vege- 
tation to an unwonted, and often insufferable trial. The cir- 
cumstances of spring-time are changed. The soil feels every 
sHght fluctuation of temperature — freezing by night and thaw- 
ing by day — instead of reposing in peaceful shelter under 
its coat of snow till the advancing season is able to guarantee 
a vegetative degree of warmth. And then, when summer 
comes, the burning sun rapidly drinks up the moisture of the 



86 

soil, and the whole aii- becomes torrid and dry. Instead of a 
regular linmidity and gentle rains, the agency of man has sub- 
stituted alternating thirst and floods. And on hill-slopes, 
■where the natural ligatures of the soil have been removed, 
sudden torrents wash it away and score the earth with ugly 
and even aggravated gorges and ravines. A most striking 
example of the effects of clearing a fine and incoherent soil, is 
seen in the rear of Vicksburg, where ever recurring torrents 
have gnawed the hillsides into most unsightly shapes; and 
whole plantations have been borne into the Big Black and tlie 
Mississippi, to navigate their way to the Balize. Similar in 
kind are the effects uj^on the gravelly hillsides of our own Penin- 
sula. It is not cropping that deteriorates their soils so much 
as the action of torrents in transporting the fine alluvial parti- 
cles to lower levels. In the fine and friable soils of the Gulf 
States, I have seen thousands of acres completely ruined by 
precisely such an agency as is at work in Michigan, under the 
disadvantage of a more gravelly and a more coherent soil. 

Such results should be foreseen and provided against. It 
should at least be required that all abandoned soils subject to 
wash should be planted to trees, which will eventually restore 
the surface to its primitive condition, and compensate, to some 
extent, for the fearful destruction of the native forest which our 
citizens are perpetually waging. If this matter is overlooked 
we shall eventually reach the condition of some of the older 
countries of Europe — fields washed away — villages deserted — 
population on the wane — and authorities anxious about the 
diminishing revenues. 

Next in importance among the agencies which man exerts in 
modifying the soil, may be mentioned the systematic drainage 
of swamps and lakes. The mere clearing of the forest and con- 
sequent dryhig of the atmosphere must contribute greatly to 
the promotion of these results. But ditching and pumping are 
the direct means by which most is accomplished. It is almost 
iacredible what physical changes are produced in a soil by 
simple ditching — even where such ditch has no outlet. The 



87 

swamp is transformed into an upland prairie. The aspect ol 
the vegetation is changed. The oxydation of the organic sub- 
stances in the soil is rapidly completed, and that which was re- 
fuse laud becomes the garden of the estate. I need not dwell 
here upon the utility of ditching, nor the changes which it in- 
duces in the soil. There is one idea, however, in connection 
with drainage, to which allusion may be made, and that is the 
drainage of lakes. In not a few instances which I have ob- 
served, the ditching which would drain a marsh occupying the 
site of a lake, would equally drain the lake, and thus anticipate 
the results of perhaps a hundred years of geological progress. 
When our population becomes more dense, and land propor- 
tionally enhanced in value, enterprise will not permit the thou- 
sands of Kttle lakelets to nestle undisturbed upon the richest 
soils of the State. It has been estimated that there are in the 
Southern third of our Peninsula 1,425 of these lakelets, cover- 
ing 228,000 acres of the surface. Some of the enterprise, and 
some of the urgency, which undertook the drainage of Haarlem 
lake by steam pumps, will eventuaDy be brought to bear in 
some of our Michigan lakes. The lake of Haarlem was a body 
of water fifteen miles in length and seven miles wide, and cov- 
ered an area of 45,000 acres, and was exhausted by the action 
of three of the most powerful steam pumps ever constructed, 
working continuously for five years. It is not imagined that 
any such costly methods of drainage WiU ever be feasible in the 
United States ; but it is apparent that if the Netherlands could 
engage in drainage on such a scale, Michigan might find it an 
object to diminish somewhat the 600,000 acres of water surface 
formed by our small lakes, if it can be done by the digging of 
a few ditches. The whole prairie region of Illinois, it wiU be 
remembered, is but the bottom of an ancient lake, and the fertile 
valley of the lower Mississippi possesses a soil of a similar sed- 
imentary character. 

A striking example of the results of human agency is seen 
in the growth and movement of the dunes; and there are few 
cases in which the reparative interference of human power is 



more urgently or more immediately demanded. Just at pres- 
ent, little inconvenience is felt from the encroachments of the 
moving sands; but the evil is in its infancy; and if not pro- 
vided against, will reduce to barrenness thousands of acres of 
the finest lands lying along the western border of the Penin- 
sula. The moveable dunes are the creation of civilization. 
While the forests stood, the winds were deprived of the power 
to di'ift the sands far beyond the immediate coast line. They 
both sheltered the soil and bound it with their roots. The 
destruction of the forest opened a broad highway for the 
travels of the sand. Already we see the dunes encroaching 
serioush' upon the most costly improvements; and the time is 
coming when theii- march will force itself upon our earnest 
attention. 

The history and present condition of Western Europe 
teaches us the tendency of the physical conditions existing 
ujDon a dune-producing coast. In Denmark and the adjacent 
Duchies, in W^estern Prussia, in the Netherlands and in 
France, the encroachments of the dunes have for years excited 
the most serious alarm; and the most energetic measures have 
been adopted in all these countries to check ..the progress of 
the invasion, and as far as possible, repair its devastations. 
The fixation of the drifting sands, like the protection and 
restoration of the forests, has been taken in charge by the 
governments of these countries; systematic experiments have 
been instituted; scientific commissions and standing bureaus 
liave been charged with the duty of devising means to combat 
this enemy of the soil; and an abundant special literature has 
sprung into existence as the result of these pubUc and private 
efforts. It is not our purpose to recapitulate, at the present 
time, the amount of destruction caused by the dunes of West- 
ern Europe, nor the measures that have been adopted for their 
fixation. Having directed attention to the subject, I shall 
leave it, with two or three additional remarks. The progress 
of the dunes, though slow — amounting in Denmark to only 
thirteen and one-half feet a year — is a steady and certain pro- 



89 

gress; aud in the course of years, has resulted in the inunda- 
tion of hundreds of thousands of acres of soil. The principal 
means relied on in Europe for the fixation of the sands is the 
planting of them with certain grasses and trees adapted to the 
situation. A favorite gi'ass is Arundo arenana — a species which 
already flouiishes spontaneously on the sandy beaches of our 
great lakes. When the sands have been partially fixed by the 
grass, the dunes may be planted with trees. In the cold ch- 
mate of Denmark, the hardy pines, as well as the birch and 
other northern trees, are found to flourish well, and to yield 
some profit. So far as we can judge, the pitch pine, often but 
improperly styled the "Norway pine, (Finus resinosa,) would 
flourish well in our State upon the dunes, as well as some of 
our oaks, bii'ches and poplars, and especially the common 
locust. Some recent developments, however, prove that the 
very best tree for binding dune sands, and one at the same 
time extremely tolerant of heat and cold, dryness and mois- 
ture, is the Japan Varnish Tree — Ailanthus glandulosa. The 
planting of this tree upon some of our dunes, in connection 
with the Arundo arenana, is an experiment well worth the trial. 
We come now to contemplate the soil of our adopted State 
in another light. If I indulge a little of that feeling of com- 
placence with which Americans have been reproached, you will 
be predisposed to pardon it. I say it intelligently — I say it 
with emphasis — ours is a State in which to be content — a State 
of which we may boast. I have traveled over the length and 
breadth of our country, from British America to the Gulf, and 
from beyond the Mississippi to Cape Cod. I have sojourned 
in nearly half the States of the Union; and yet I never return 
to our Peninsula State — the Demark of America — ^without 
feeling prompted to utter the exclamation "Michigan, my 
Michigan ! " With a chmate iufinately more bracing than that 
which debilitates the swarthy and bilious son of the South, it 
is yet more temperate than that of other States upon the same 
parallels. Our soils afford us every variety of crops which 

12 



90 

fiourish in the temperate zone. There is no State which yields 
better returns of the cereals; and maize is almost equally sure. 
In regard to fruits it would seem as if Pomona herself had 
selected Michigan for her chosen abode. I am proud to travel 
over the north-west and hear the acknowledgment made that 
for their line apples they are indebted to Michigan. The same 
IS true of strawberries and other smaller fruits. Behold how 
nature herself has selected Michigan as the field for the per- 
fection of some of her wild fruits. The raspberry of Mich- 
igan enjoys a fame wider than the Continent; and half of the 
north-west is supphed with our huckleberries and cranbenies. 
And speaking of wild fruits, in the culture of which natm"e has 
led the way and set us the example, it certainly is meet that we 
give due consideration to the nuts of the hickory, black-walnut 
and butternut. Of all the nuts produced in America, the 
chestnut and pecan alone, are wanting in Michigan, and the 
former even, is not entirely unknown. The grape has not yet 
become a staple article of production; but where the peach will 
fiourish the vine may be successfully reared. Next, in regard 
to pastm-age and hay, I believe no other State can come into 
competition — other States may export more, and may even pro- 
duce more ; but let it be remembered that the greater part of 
our State is still under the shade of " the forest primeval." Our 
stock is unsurpassed. Our horses, I am pleased to leai'n, are 
in prime request among cavalry officers. And, as a wool-pro- 
ducing State — a character depending on the quahties of the 
soil — Michigan stands high, with a fair prospect of soon stand- 
ing preeminent. In the production of maple sugar, moreover, 
boimteous nature has furnished us with a resource which makes 
us comparatively independent of cane growing regions. 

Unite these qualities of the soil which reward our labor with 
HO abundant a fruitage, with the jjossession of aU that mineral 
wealth which science and capital have brought to light, and 
which we have good evidence lies stiU undiscovered, and where 
is the State that can present equal attractions for capital or for 
labor ? But, though foreign from my subject, I will take the 



91 

Kberty to say that our educational institutions are the crowning- 
glory of our State — the creation of the people who own and til-j^ 
the soil — the product of the wisdom and sagacity of those able 
legislators who have passed, or are rapidly passing from the 
stage of active life. It is generally admitted, and cannot, 
therefore, be regarded as invidious, to state that our system of 
education is superior in its plan, and especially in its workings, 
to that of any other western State. Our schools are superior 
even to those of New England— if we except a few in the larger 
eastern cities. It is a matter of personal observation with me, 
that we exact better qualifications in our primary and Union 
school teachers than are required in Connecticut and most 
parts of New England and New York. New England teachers 
make many failures in Michigan. I am sure you will pardon 
me if I give pubHc utterance to a sentiment which is in every 
heart, that a great degree of the success which our educational 
system has achieved, in its actual working, is due to the effi- 
ciency of the Normal School, and the faithful and enhghtened 
labors of that public officer who has been at the head of the 
system during the past six years. 

But I have not yet said all. This exuberant soil — this mate- 
rial wealth — these wise laws and excellent institutions impress a 
character upon our population. Michigan is not the asylum for 
indolence and vice. Those only are tempted within her borders 
who can bring honesty and industry along with them. Such 
labor, and are rewarded. They acquire honest wealth, and 
are content. This is no boast. The fact was unsuspected by 
me, until travel and observation forced it upon my attention. 
How do Michigan soldiers compare in physical, moral and 
mental character, with those of other Staies? I am happy to 
have some direct testimony on the subject from high authority. 
Major General Butterfield declared to me, last winter, of his 
own accord, that no State, save Massachusetts, sent to the field 
such men as Michigan. I have the same testimony from Gen- 
eral Slocum and numerous inferior officers. Straws will show 
the moral status and breeding of a people, as weU as the direc- 



tiou r-.l tlu: wiiiii, SlJiiiui;j iiu-d iiiuitiiia, are Dlessed with a milder 
climate than Michigan, and the prau'ies of the former , have 
caused her to be styled the garden of the west. But who can 
travel by the public conveyances in those States, without being 
struck by the difference in the regulations required to secui'e 
propriety of conduct among the passengers? On our Michigan 
roads, ladies and gentlemen universally occupy the same cars; 
and no lover of the cigar thinks of puffing his smoke in the 
face of fifty fellow passengers. But in the States referred to 
all this is changed. I step to the door of a car and propose to 
enter, but a low bred employe pushes me back, with^ the re- 
mark, " Ladies' Car." Some dirty Bridget, with her bundle, fol- 
lows me, and the door flies open. I go away convinced more than 
ever, that " there is no accounting for tastes,"' and find a seat in 
the midst of tobacco smoke and its kindred filth, without ever 
being able to ascertain why I am not entitled to as pure air and 
as clean a floor as Bridget. In Michigan the soldier rides in the 
same car with other peoj)le — ladies as well as gentlemen. In 
Illinois, he is not only thrust out of the " ladies' car," but the 
gentlemen's car also. He is demoralized — if not demorahzed 
before — by this sentence passed upon his respectability. It is 
greatly to be feared, however, that there is a measure of ju.stice 
in the sentence. These are small things, but they are indexes 
of pubUc and private character. 

I retui'n again to my adopted State, and exclaim with greater 
unction than ever, " Michigan, my Michigan !" Here certainly 
is a title to the honorable appellation " the garden of the 
West." A garden is constituted by a variety of crops growing 
upon a good soil weU tilled. What State can prefer a claim 
paramount to ours? I insist upon it that our Peninsula is 
the garden of the West. It produces the greatest variety of 
crops, cultivated by the gi'eatest amount and variety of intelli- 
gent labor, and exports its products to the farming regions of 
surrounding States. But why has not this title to preeminence 
been recognized ? Ohio and Indiana, and more especially the 
bald and drearj- prairies of lUinois have been preferred, 



93 

while Michigan has been reproached as the land of swamps, 
1} ing far away to the north, where ague sat brooding over a 
nest of human ills on every quarter section. Even Wisconsin 
and Minnesota attract the foreign emigrant beyond the 
"pleasant Peninsula;" and we stand by, permitting them to 
pass, as if it were the ordination of heaven. I assure you that 
this is all v;rong, and it is all needless. Let our resources be 
what they may, they are valueless without labor. What we 
most want is men. In the truly practical language of the 
Governor, in his message, '' ive must have settlers." Our beau- 
tiful State, which has ah'eady taken so high a position amongst 
her sisters, and has sent over 80,000 brave volunteers to the 
army, is still, in the main, a wilderness. Let us have settlers 
to fell the forest and develop the soil, and we shall soon occupy 
the very first rank in all that constitutes a great and prospei-- 
ous State. We must lend a helping hand to every judicious 
effort to open the interior to travel, and connect it with the 
business marts. We positively need two or three raih'oads 
through the northern wilderness. Esj^ecially do we need a 
road connecting the Saginaw Valley with the Grand Traverse 
basin, and and another running through Mackinac and con- 
necting with the Grand Trunk road on the east, and a North- 
em Pacific road on the west. Still more do we need to adopt 
a more enhghtened poUcy in lending pubHc aid to the develop- 
ment of our resources, and in publishing to the world more 
abundant information in reference to our topography, soils and 
other material resources. Again I am glad to be in miison 
with, the' Governor in his late message, as well as my esteemed 
predecessor, who addressed you on Tuesday evening, and 
entered more at length upon specific recommendations. No 
investment has ever paid the State better than the half- finished 
surveys she has made of her natui'al resources. Let them be 
completed. Let the truth only be known, and widely known, 
and we shall see men flocking to our borders from the four 
quarters of the world. Numbers and accumulated wealth will 



94 

jield us additional power and consequence, and our prosper- 
ity will multiply in an increasing ratio. 

It must be confessed tliat a little want of public spirit and 
private enterprise manifests itself among our citizens. The 
government itself, save in our earlier histoiy, lias been emi- 
nently conservative. Our own dullness has left open the door 
for foreign and non-resident adventurers; and they are to-day 
reaping harvests which more enhghtened statesmanship and 
more private enterprise would have secured to our own citizens. 
I speak with knowledge of what I say, when I allude to the op- 
portunities already sacrificed to the stupid genius of conserva- 
tism, and notify you that non-residents are coining millions 
from your domain, and bearing it out of the State. Let this 
reproach cease to exist. If we are true to our own interests, 
we shaU attract the admiration of the world, not less by our 
business sagacity and broad based public spirit, than by the 
wisdom of our laws, the genius of our institutions, the wealth 
of our mineral resources, and the unsurpassed excellence of our 
soils. 

Ann Arbor, Michigan, Jan. 6, 1855. 



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